Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

In our last update we covered what to expect in the upcoming demo for our cyberpunk heist RPG. And since then we've released a revamped trailer for the game to give you a look at the latest gameplay!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you have a second to give it a 👍 on YouTube and leave a comment, it's a huge help.

[h2]We've come a long way from our early prototypes...[/h2]
Kickstarter prototype:


Our demo today (still pre-Early Access!):


Still further polish to do before release, but we're looking forward to seeing how you all do in the demo! Mark your calendars Knights, we'll see you at the rendezvous.

Knights, we're excited to announce Cyber Knights: Flashpoint will be included in the upcoming Steam Next Fest, an online demo festival running June 19th - 26th.

This will be the first new demo we've offered for the game in over a year, and it's the first big milestone on our road to release later in 2023. 🎉 All of the game-shaping feedback our alpha players have given us, all of the new design & UX work to make this our best-looking game yet, and several features even our alpha players haven't seen yet are all waiting for you to try.

[h3]The demo will offer:[/h3]

• Your first big heist to pull off! Find out how our turn-based squad tactics plays. See if you have the skills to use creative stealth, a variety of weapons, and the turn order itself to accomplish objectives in each map and get your crew out alive.
  
• Six squad members in your roster; each brings a unique set of talents to your crew. In the full game you'll have opportunities to recruit new members, as well as access to multi-classing, extensive skill trees, weapon modding, cybernetics -- everything you need to build out the perfect squads for your playstyle and the needs of the jobs you're taking on.
  
• A glimpse of your main character's origins as a Cyber Knight. These elites of our dark future's underworld are rare and highly sought after. Knights have capabilities no one else in this world does -- but it comes at a cost.
  
• A first look at your safehouse; in the full game you'll have access to base-building features to expand this underground hideout, providing more opportunities to upgrade your team and expand your capabilities to take on bigger jobs as you make a name for yourself.
  
• A preview of the choices you'll need to make in this shadowy world of mercenaries, secrets, and cyberpunks. How far will you go for a chance at a better life? What are you willing to risk for the extra credits or knowledge that could make a big difference for your crew? Who will you stay loyal to? Who can you trust?
  

[h3]Don't miss it![/h3]
We'll be sharing some lore, extras, and maybe even some dev streams over the next couple of weeks. Join our Discord or follow @CyberKnightsRPG on twitter to stay in the loop.

We can't wait to show how far the game has come. While we're still hard at work fine-tuning and polishing the full game ahead of our Early Access release, it's already a thrill to offer the best-looking and most advanced set of tactical combat capabilities we've ever featured in a Trese Brothers game.

Especially if you're new to our games, as you try the demo we want you to know we are listening to feedback! We're active every day in the Steam forums and in our Discord, and we love making improvements and additions based on player feedback. This demo isn't just an opportunity for us to show the game off; it's your opportunity to make a mark on it.

We'll see you on June 19th! If you haven't already, wishlist & follow Cyber Knights of course! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

Our apologies this monthly update has run a little late due to some team travel. April was a massively productive month with the entire team at work adding content, balancing, tuning and working hard on spreading the new UX across the game. We're getting closer to our big Alpha v2 return every day.

Another big month with lots of progress toward the next major milestone, Early Access release! So, let's check out some highlights from April!


[h2]Twitchy and Blendy![/h2]
Our animator has been hard at work improving and polishing the game’s animation as well as catching up on animation areas where we have been lacking. Three big categories that needed work were idle twitch, getting hit and dodging animations, which have now both been added to the game during April.

For idle animations, we’re excited to see how much it helps the natural feeling of all the turn-based actors in a level to have them looking around, checking their weapons and checking their corners.



For both hit and dodge, we’ve used a mix of additive animation layers which give us the ability to “add” the animation on top of any other animation. Characters or enemies running through overwatch fields can react to taking hits mid-stride or those who dodge can duck low and throw their hand up a defensive posture while sprinting across the field. In addition, for animations like taking hits we’re blending between 8 different animations depending on the exact direction of the hit to give the best-looking results.

[h2]Exciting Class / Talent Updates[/h2]
In the latest iteration of the alpha, we had just 40 Talents spread across 5 classes. When we come back online, we’re aiming to have rewritten and added a total of 60 Talents to massively expand your build options and create more and more excellent options in your kit. The current plan for Early Access launch includes 6 classes and 90 Talents, averaging 15 killer abilities each. Here are some highlights we worked on in April --

A Knight can now spike the quantum countermeasure signal from their spinal rider to create an Atomic Stutter and stop a human or drone target in their tracks at range for a few seconds. This burst signal can’t be repeated rapidly but the Stunning effect at range is a powerful piece in the Knight’s kit.

In the case that your Vanguard is spotted by security, their passive Overdrive Talent will kick in to boost their Initiative. With a major Initiative boost, you’ll be the first to take action on the next Turn or if you’re slated to act later in the Turn you may “jump the line” and become first in the Initiative timeline and immediately it’s your turn to act. Surprise!

Soldiers are hardened leaders on the battlefield, and their Roll With It passive Talent allows them to automatically reduce incoming damage from a hit before it is applied to their armor. With extra level points dedicated to build up Roll With It, you can train this Talent to the point of negating a ranged hit completely.

There are multiple ways to cut IC when hacking the matrix but one of them is just to unleash devastating attacks, spinning out scripted mayhem in an all-out assault on the enemy network. Hackers who take this aggressive approach can now buy themselves some momentary cover from spiking Quantum Security Tally by using training up their passive Scapegoat Talent which allows them to reroute and cancel out some of the incoming Tally.

[h2]AI Testing and Simulation Tools[/h2]
This month, we’ve been building out some additional simulation tools that let us play with the AI’s decision making and choice trees outside of the regular game context. This lets us test and iterate faster on these important decision points and also to drop these simulation tools into any level at any stage of production-- from basic block out to fully decorated and completed -- to see how the AI would react to different areas and scenarios. This is key as it allows us to embed the AI thinking into very complex 3D scenarios and understand what it might to do to both better tweak the decision making process or the level itself.

One such simulation tool just shows the sight range rules for any given position within a map.


Another simulation tool calculates how an AI will consider flanking depending, given its position and player position.


Another simulation plans an AI's hunting routine, the process by which it will approach a security event (looking for a dead guard, heard something suspicious, was that gunfire?) and how they will path back and forth across the area in question seeking enemy contact for a number of turns.


[h2]Reward and Stretch Goal Progress[/h2]
For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.

We’re continuing to work on and refine the design of the Digital Artbook pages and push this reward toward completion. We are also working on the Lore Book and finding ways that more of its content can end up in the game’s Journal screens.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/2059870/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint_Demo

Sometimes it feels like these late winter months go too fast. How is March over already!? It has been a very productive month with every team member hard at work on adding new features, creating exciting content, and polishing the game in preparation for the Alpha v2 return.

The biggest two internal projects - the UX implementation and L2 pipeline are chugging along. We’re definitely in the grind now, which is a heads-down “crunch” to the end but without the crazy overtime or deadline induced stress.

Another big month and a lot of progress - let’s check out some highlights!


[h2]New Game: Picking your Backstory, Origin Story and Team[/h2]
This month we’ve made big strides improving the new game setup for the Cyber Knight’s alpha. Where previously there were few options and every game started the same, we’ve now introduced three sets of choices which combine to create very different starting points for each game.

The first is your Backstory, which tells the story of your life before you reached this point. Were you raised on the unforgiving streets of the Wards under a radioactive sky, were you brought up in the plush luxury of a corporate tower preparing for your aptitude tests or trained up as a milsec contractor?
Your Backstory will define some of your initial Contacts when the game starts, your starting Attribute package and many of your character’s metadata tags describing their faction, connections, skills and more. There will be numerous backstory options.

The second choice is your Origin Story which answers the question of how you came to have a Cyber Knight’s quantum rider surgically and irrevocably spliced into your spine. The first Origin Story in the game will be Syndicate Debts, in which you and your friends have pulled together everything you had and taken a massive loan from a Syndicate financier to afford the installation of a Cyber Knight’s computer. The stretch goal “Valkyrie Zero” and the Kickstarter add-on “Horizon Cypher” are both Origin Stories. There will only be a handful of origin story options.

As well as explaining your new cybernetic, your Origin Story sets up one of the big story arcs for the first act of the game and this story will include a set of Contacts -- be they friends or enemies.

The final set of choices will be to pick your team from a list of available character templates. You’ll be filling up the slots for your team from a few locked slots -- your team needs a Face, a Vanguard and a Hacker -- as well as a few free slots -- your pick of Soldiers, Snipers, Cyberswords, another Vanguard, etc. There will be numerous character template options.

Each templated character you pick will have a starting name, character visual (both of which can be changed), their own Backstory, special starting equipment, optional cybernetics and at least one Contact that they know.

As a sum total -- your Backstory, Origin Story and team picks will give you a strong starting foundation for your covert merc team and aims to deliver on classic tabletop RPG feels -- you’ll have friends and enemies, faction connections, a variety of skills and abilities and trouble already knocking at your door.


[h2]Cont. L2 Mission Pipeline[/h2]
The L2 pipeline is going to roar onward from here for... well, possibly years from now. We’re working every day to design new levels, challenges, and improve and refine the ones we have while also beautifying everything. Levels are now assembling into awesome heist storylines full of surprises and complications and it's feeling great.

In a new and exciting development, we’ve added new tools for the level designers to be able to add, move, or remove key elements such as enemy spawning locations, patrol paths, security devices, and loot boxes in any map based on the storyline it is being played in. This is a huge boost in replayability for the levels; when combined with the existing ability to change entry, exit, and objectives based on the storyline, now these level spaces can be reconfigured to have completely different objectives, challenges, and rewards, such as a raid to steal loot, an escape route out of a heist, or a kidnapping mission, to name a few examples.



[h2]Cont. UX Implementation[/h2]
March saw major progress across the UX implementation project, we are now nearly complete with the mission map UX with only less than 10 items still kicking around needing attention and of course, some bug hunting to wrap up. That has allowed us to move on to the Matrix UX where progress has been rapid so far. The Matrix Mk2 HUD has taken shape, we’ve completed the addition of missing features for hack-only missions and we’re closing in on starting the big central node map which is the core of the work and the key part to beautify.

A very ugly WIP Hacking screen with some of the HUD elements replaced -- there are nice things starting to gather in the corners but the main of the screen is not pleasing

The final visual designs for the Safehouse screens are being handed off for review on a daily basis now, and we’re building up a growing style library of shared components that will help speed up the implementation once we get into the more menu-focused tasks in the safehouse.



[h2]Reward and Stretch Goal Progress[/h2]
For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.

We’re continuing to work on and refine the design of the Digital Artbook pages and push this reward toward completion.

We have also started work on the Lorebook in earnest now. It will be quite a process -- gathering the lore notes from many sources, paper and separate Google Docs from all these years working on this game world and pulling them together into a single, well-organized tome of lore.