Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Knights and mercs, we've got another update touching down on the NBZ launch pad today. Update #243 adds a new proc-gen objective, Boosted VIP, which is one of the most interesting mission formats yet, fixed issues with Active Leverage not being available, improved Leverage pricing to be dynamic, added a new red skull icon next to HP bars where a hit will guarantee a kill, upgraded the icon indicating an enemy will hear your gunfire, improved headshot zooming in main HUD, fixed issues with Face Talents Dealmaker and Insider Hustle and ... more. F10s, things, map issues! Let's dig in.

If you are enjoying the relentless pace of updates as we close in on our June 2nd release, please take a moment to leave a review! Yes, we are just 4 weeks out!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1021210/announcements/detail/516334711921967606?snr=2___

[h2]New Proc-Gen Objective: Boosted VIP[/h2]

While we've taken a bit of a pause in dropping a constant stream of new maps, we are excited to drop a brand new proc-gen objective today with Boosted VIP! In this dynamic objective type, a valuable defector is traveling across a mission map under heavy security detail, "bodyguards".

You'll use a Leverage to convert the target defector into a friendly character at a time of your own choosing, and then need to get that defector to the extraction point alive. The Boosted VIP creates a really cool scenario in which, for some of the levels, you're in pursuit of an enemy VIP, trying to get close enough without kicking the bee's nest, and in the second half of the level, you're trying to extract a vulnerable VIP.

This higher challenge type of mission is only available at Power Level 4+.

[h2]Revealed Extraction System[/h2]

With the new Boosted VIP proc-gen objectives, we are trying out a new "revealed extraction" system that gives you a preview of where your team will need to extract after the primary mission objective is completed. This means you can check your objectives from the very first turn, and by clicking on the locked extraction objective, you will get a look at where your extraction will be. Once the enemy defector is converted to your side, the extraction will open up.

If this system works well and you, the players, like it - we will dive into the hour intensive process to spread it to a wider set of missions within the game.

Please let us know!

[h2]Swapped to Ear for Hearing[/h2]

If an enemy will hear your gunshot, we've swapped over to an ear icon. This icon is shown in the bottom left with your weapon and over the head of an enemy who would hear your attack.


[h2]Leverage Fix and Pricing[/h2]
The previous update had a bug where Leverages were not appearing in mission after you purchased them. This was fixed with a hotfix, but it is also fixed in this update.

In addition, we've changed the pricing on some Leverage so that they are now dynamic and increase by the Power Level of the mission. This helps keep these fair (a Gold Key for a starting mission can't be $10K, and the Gold Key for the last mission is still $10K!).

[h2]Red Skull of Death[/h2]

To help make it crystal clear when the guaranteed damage from an attack will kill an enemy, we've added a red skull icon next to their HP in this case. This indicates that the enemy will die without needing any Damage that is rolled, so as long as you hit them they will die.

As promised!

[h2]Continued Headshot Improvements[/h2]

We're continuing to improve the new headshots that have gone out last week. With this update, we changed the zoom level and positioning of the shots in the main mission HUD, getting back to the "head and shoulders" feeling we had before and not the "camera squashed against face" feeling we had there for a minute.

We also fixed the portraits looking the wrong way in the victory and defeat screens.

[h2]On-going Face Talents[/h2]
The Face is a massive class with their tendrils in possibly every system in the strategy layer. Thanks for sending in F10s if you are hitting bugs or rough edges. We will keep working on improving. We are working on their Limit Breaks - thank you for the F10s!

With this update, we've fixed Dealmaker not always adding the extra +10% Influence bonus when a mission is completed from a Contact with the chosen factions. Also, we've improved the rules for the Counter-Intel Tokens and Insider Hustle - if you haven't trained the Talent, then you don't get any default Contacts. This will be fixed in a future update when Face's Traits become much cooler and integrate with their new Talents, and each Face gets a specific set of Contacts by default in the Counter-Intel Room (Blur will always be able to work with Street Contacts).

[h2]F10 Mountain[/h2]

We've also just been mining at the F10 mountain this week, giving extra attention to killing off "root issues" that are causing outsized numbers of F10s.

• Mouse and Keyboard users will not have their selection "hang" in the Initiative timeline and prevent easy movement after clicking up there.
  
• Objectives for Infiltrate and Download missions will no longer incorrectly point to Gold Room terminals even though the files aren't there.
  
• Safehouse Missions warn about expiration at 0h instead of 6h.
  
• Improved Overwatch description to be clear about their Initiative rules - for more details see the Overwatch page on the wiki

[h2] v1.10.45 - #243: Boosted VIP Objective! - 5/5/2025[/h2]
- Added new proc-gen objective: Boosted VIP - VIP starts as an enemy under bodyguard protection, boost them, and extract them safely
- Boosted VIP appears at Power Level 4+ and has 4 maps available, +4 total proc-gen combos
- Testing out new Revealed Extraction system with Boosted VIP
- Some Leverages now have more variable pricing that increases with mission power level
- A new red skull icon appears next to the enemy HP bar if they are guaranteed to die if the attack hits
- Upgraded icon for enemies hearing your attacks - now an ear icon instead of the bullet shockwave icon from before
- Fixed headshots looking the wrong way in victory/defeat
- Improved zoom of headshots in main mission HUD
- Fixed issue with Counter Intel Pod having Token-for-Favor offers even without Face Talent
- Improved controller vs. mouse/keyboard handling for Initiative timeline in main mission
- Fixed bug with Face's Talent Dealmaker not always granting the full +20% Influence boost
- Adjusted warning for mission expiration to run at 0h remaining instead of 6h
- Fixed bug with Infiltrate and Download Objectives reporting files still in Gold Key rooms even though they are not
- Fixed bug preventing Active Leverages from being usable
- Fixed issue with scrolling dropdown (like in Options) not showing first item on Steam Deck
- Fixed issue with status screen Talent list showing 5 charges for all Talents
- Improved Overwatch Talent description to include notes about Initiative in the next Turn

Knights, we're just 4 weeks away from our full launch: Monday, June 2nd, at 9am Eastern Standard Time.

Each week we'll be counting down and sharing some special info to help everyone get ready for launch. This week: a bit about us and ways to stay tuned for future projects.


[h2]So who are we?[/h2]
My brother and I, Cory and Andrew Trese, have been making video games since 2011. We started in the early days of Google Play and transitioned to Steam-first in 2015, always dedicated to making deep, highly-replayable RPGs & strategy games.

Some great interviewers have gotten us talking more about how Trese Brothers Games has grown over the years; a couple of recent ones we recommend are this extensive written interview on Tom's Gaming Vault, and a fun video interview with strategy game streamer Sprigleaf.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
It's challenging to be an indie studio without any outside investors but we've done it by prioritizing players, carefully scoping based on player feedback and what we know we can deliver on, and staying directly connected to our community through Steam forums and Discord.

[h2]Don't Miss What's Next![/h2]
Every successful launch (this is our 5th game on Steam) helps us grow and build better games. So even as Cyber Knights will continue to be our near-sole focus for quite a while after full launch, if you like our approach and want to make sure you don't miss future projects from us, we want to invite you to join our community.


Joining our Discord connects you directly with us and an awesome community of 7,000+ other players as well. Following our developer account here on Steam is a great way to stay in the loop through Steam's own notifications. And we have accounts on most major social networks, particularly Bluesky and YouTube.

But we all know how platforms can change at any time, often to the disadvantage of independent creators like us, so I'd particularly encourage you to please sign up for our Just-the-Big-News mailing list.

We have sent only four emails to this list in the past 5 years! It's an easy, no-distractions way to make sure you don't miss out on our next game! Hop on to get a notification when the time comes.

[h2]4 weeks to go![/h2]
We'll see you next week with some info on what kind of post-launch content you can expect from us for Cyber Knights.

Knights and mercs, another early May update is touching down. This one has a big focus on polish for the Safehouse Timeline, perhaps the most core component of the strategy experience in the Safehouse. We've rebuilt its underpinnings, smoothed its animation and fixed all reported (over 200 F10s) issues with it in a big update. We've also further polished the headshots and their zoom, fixed a ton of minor map issues and a missing terminal, and continued to polish the Face Talents and balance.

We're hard at work making the game the best it can be and are not willing to let any stone go unpolished. If you are enjoying the game and relentless updates, please take a minute to leave a review ːsteamhappyː

[h2]Timeline Smoothing[/h2]

Update #242 is dedicated to a set of issues that have caused a huge number of F10s over the last year. Sometimes the safehouse Timeline was just a little ... odd. You might see an event suddenly jump back 6 hours, sometimes a mission would fail to give its "about to end" warning if there were a pile of events nearly finished, and most annoyingly, if you got a pile of events ending at 0h, it could be hard to be sure the order they would resolve in.

This is a "guts" rewrite, so there is no actual change in good behavior, just a ton of smoothness and niceness in how the timeline operates. Here are some other examples:

• If you add 2 characters to a Simstream at the same time, they will both finish at the same time.
  
• No Injury or Wound event will hang at 0 hours and refuse to complete.
  
• When a pile of events end up at 0 hours, they will complete in the most player-friendly order with Injury, Wounds, Simstream, Cybernetic Recover all finishing before Missions.
  
• Removed the chance that you can click "Play" on the timeline and be interrupted multiple time by pop up (story started, limit break happened ...). Now, at max you'll get a single interrupt before it gets to the next Turn.
  
• There are a lot of other little, specific behavior changes. But in every case, we aimed for consistency and player-friendly behavior.
  

[h2]Further Headshot Work[/h2]

Thanks for all the feedback about the headshot update! We've further improved the lighting, shadow and post-processing used for taking the headshots to make them even nicer in all conditions. You can now just open the Appearance tab and select each character in turn on the Roster and their headshot will update to the latest. It takes about 1 second, so don't go too fast :D

We've also fixed some "over zoom" on the faces in places like the Timeline. It is much nicer to see a slightly wider shot of the Contact or Merc there.

We're excited to keep improving, so keep pushing us!

[h2]Map and Prop Fixes[/h2]

We've executed a number of fixes on map issues today as well as improving a number of props that were used throughout the game and missing certain metadata about how they should work.

There was a certain type of corporate desk where the middle of the desk was ethereal - you could fall or walk right through it. There were a number of rebar-and-concrete ruined walls, columns and arches that all had minor issues with their colliders, meaning that they didn't do a good job accurately blocking lines of fire or providing good cover.

We also fixed a bug that could lead to a missing terminal in the Decommissioned Core mission map on a number of different objective types.

[h2]Continued Face Class Cleanup[/h2]

With a huge release like Face, there is always a lot of cleanup todo. We've added their Talent listing to the safehouse help section, fixed a ton of typos in the new Leverages and further improved the text of their Talents and upgrades so that it can read more naturally.

Also, we discovered that some of the upgrades to their Field Coordination Talent did not cost any Level Points. If you happened to buy those, you may suddenly find yourself at a negative Level Point.

There is, of course, more to be done! We're working on fixing Face Limit Breaks and class node icons and then we'll get into fixing their Backstory and Traits to be exciting as the rest of their class.

[h2] v1.10.43 - Update #242: Tight Timeline - 5/2/2025[/h2]
- Rebuilt flow, pop-ups and event handling in timeline - all shifting, jumping, out of order, hung event bugs fixes
- Fixed issues with missing terminal in "Decommissioned Core" on some heists (F10)
- Fixed issue with some Field Coordination nodes not costing any Level Points to purchase
- Fixed issue with some ruined concrete and rebar props not having accurate sight line blocking
- Fixed issue with some corporate desks not stopping movement or colliding with dead bodies
- Fixed issue with victory reward text rendering
- Fixed issues with some hack only missions generating achievements incorrectly
- Added Face Talents bar to screen help system, tooltips
- Fixes issue with "Terminator Mesh" having 3 Armor Points
- Fixed flickering in hologram on cybernetics screen that was too much
- Fixes typos in safehouse token offers, Face focus offer upgrades

Knights and mercs, tonight's update has some major upgrades for controller and Steamdeck support as well as a full refresh of the character headshot component in the game. We've also fixed tons of issues reported with maps, typos and dialog misattributions and resolved mission generation issues where primary objective files could end up behind a Gold Key door on a terminal or lootbox.

If you're enjoying the relentless pace of updates and improvements to the game, please take a moment to leave a review. Now -let's dig in!

[h2]Upgraded Headshots[/h2]

We've completed another round of visual updates for the headshots used in the game for all characters and contacts. This round has improved the rendering by zooming in a bit more, improving the centering of the shot, improving the pixel clarity, adding a better anti-aliasing solution to the saved image and also using the same post-processing stack that the rest of the game uses so that you get richer colors with more contrast and shadow. Also, this has removed the "flip" that was baked into every headshot where the final resulting 2D was horizontally flipped before being rotated (why, no one remembers or will admit to remembering ːsteamhappyː lol)


This update is automatic for all Contacts and for all new games but for your existing games and save slots, we cannot automatically go through and regenerate all the headshots. The fastest way to do this is to head to your Roster > Appearance and mouse over a few items without changing anything. This will update the headshot. Then pick the next merc and repeat. Apologies for this one!

This is an area (appearance in general) where the work doesn't really ever stop. We're just going to keep grinding to improve as much as we can.

[h2]Steamdeck / Controller Improvements[/h2]

Update #241 has a lot of nice improvements for controller and especially Steamdeck players. Let's just go through the list!

• The center cursor on the main mission map should no longer disappear (usually caused by accidentally touching the trackpad)
  
• When using Steamdeck or controller, the "invisible copy of the mouse" that might cause grids and tables to operate oddly, refuse to scroll or show double selection is now completely cleaned up.
  
• Removed all tab sets from standard D-pad navigation, so you don't accidentally nav in there. Use the LB / RB to move quickly between tabs, as shown in hotkey helpers.
  
• For anyone swapping between mouse, keyboard and controller, this is much cleaner now, requiring a keypress, button press or mouse click to force the mode swap for input. This also helps anyone who was struggling with a high sensitivity mouse that could just kind of kick the game back into mouse mode all the time.
  

This is a big set of internal changes to the input handling guts of the game so if you have any issues or we accidentally broke your input setup while fixing so many others, please let us know and we will jump all over it.

[h2]Files in Gold Key Terminals[/h2]

In some of the mission maps where a Terminal can appear behind a Gold Key Door, it was possible that some of the primary objective Files could therefore be hosted on that terminal. We've updated the metadata and the intelligence in the proc-gen builder so that it will avoid this scenario for all missions that involve hacking files off hosts. Objective Files will no longer appear behind Gold Keys in Terminals (and haven't appeared in Lootboxes in Gold Key areas for a while).

[h2]New Camera Control Option[/h2]

With Update #241 we moved the Camera Controls section of Options from the Gameplay tab to the Controls tab, where it makes more sense to live. We also added a new option that allows you to flip the rotation direction for all rotation inputs - from controller sticks or Q/E keyboard - in case the other direction feels more natural to you.

[h2] v1.10.41 - #241: Headshot Controller - 4/30/2025[/h2]
- Improved all headshots for all characters and contacts - update your headshots by opening appearance tab for each character
- Fixed issues with some appearance options (beards, glasses, hats) suddenly not fitting right
- Fixed issues with Heist File generation that could result in main objective Files being locked behind Gold Key Doors
- Improved navigation for controller D-pads by removing all tabs from navigation (use LB / RB to page through tab sets)
- Improved navigation for controller in grids and tables, the "invisible mouse" no longer causes odd second selection
- Improved controller cursor on main map, will no longer disappear if trackpad is brushed
- Improved game's handling of changing between controller and keyboard/mouse, touching mouse no longer swaps
- Added new option to swap direction of camera rotation for all inputs (keyboard, controller)
- Moved Camera Controls from Gameplay to Controls tab in Options