Cepheus Protocol News

If your experiencing crashes/instability please try a Steam Verify/Display Drivers update before contacting us.

This is a maintenance patch while we work on the bigger line items mentioned in the last Letter to the Producer read more here. https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/3896239307767991985



Functional Carrier movement on Treasure Island. Within the next few days we will work to get some "drag" added and improve the turning. We are aiming for an experimental by this weekend.
What's on our to do list:

• Keep testing and refining since this is a completely "custom" path finding solution
  
• Give the Carrier LOS
  
• Make it supply ammo/gas for anything on it
  
• Beaching/Docking Logic
  
• Winters change
  
• Controllable Doors/Elevators
  

A lot of this will come online at the eleventh hour as the hardest tasks are relating to path finding/movement and just supporting unit movement on a moving object.
(Click Show details for a full breakdown of the changes)
[expand]

• Fixed a Mortar autofire crash, from trying to access a null autofire target
  
• Fixed a Mortar damage crash, from passing invalid information to repair actor
  
• Crash fix for https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1177498515241443422/1177498515241443422
  
• Added a 'Specials-Only' targeting mode for the Hold Fire Button
  
• Avenger Turret - Adjusted 'weapon attach point' offset so the turret won't clip with its base as much
  
• Avenger Turret - fixed the sphere outlines around the turret
  
• Avenger Turret - Adjusted some matters for the construction holograms to look a little better (not perfect, may need some mesh adjustments to get these holograms to be correct without too-hacky solutions)
  
• Adjusted a Strategic Resource Point in Angel Island that was too close to a fire tower
  
• Fixed Mouse Hover and minimap POI for Strategic Resource Points (places where you build SOCs for money)
  
• Fixed some distance checks for vehicles not properly differentiating between distance for one weapon and distance for another
  
• Fixed selective firing being applied to vehicles
  
• Shawnee 30mm: Increased firing angle by 15 degrees (5->20) / Increased rotation speed by 50% (Horizontal 40->75, Vertical 25->37.5) Result: Shawnee 30mm should be considerably more reliable
  
• Tracked down an issue where custom field constructs might feed outdated construction data to the Construct Builder. This resolves an issue with Dual Barbed Wire Walls getting offset when construction is complete (though this may not fixed dual-barbed wire construction points that were saved before this patch)
  
• Speculative fix for 'accept guardianship' civvies suddenly running off to a world building
  
• Minor adjustments to civilian management/evacuation to try to smooth it out
  
• Some adjustments to the SUPPLY (scavenging) civilian faction squad order, to make them 'jitter' less when in FOW. Also made them slightly more active in moving around zones, while being less jittery: should be better for performance and appearance.
  
• Added Zoom Speed and Minimum Camera Speed sliders to the Game Options
  
• Updated the Civilian Holding Area 'list' widget to support mobs/groups of civilians. A mob of civvies will be listed as a 'Group of X' now
  
• A mob of civilians won't have a male/female icon listed next to it. The 'capacity' indicator at the top will properly reflect groups of civilians now
  
• Updated Tower Guards (both HEMTT and regular towers) to no longer have regular movement enabled (they can still rotate, but no longer do regular movement checks). In a busy save, this ended up saving ~.5ms in-editor
  
• Fixed collision on the Guard Tower Atlas that was interacting oddly with the Camera
  
• Fixed scaling issues with DNA widgets (and capped size a bit smaller than it was before, for larger DNA piles)
  
• Added most infected types, and regular civilians, to perception monitor thread (to save performance cost on perception system)
  
• Fixed Ravens blocking camera
  
• Our Sight sense now suspends for 2 seconds (instead of FLT_MAX) if it determines there are no queries to examine
  =If queries are added during this suspension, the system properly boots back up after those 2 seconds, and doesn't shut down anymore (previously this period of time would result in 'invisible enemies' until something else kickstarted the Sight sense examination again, such as the spawning of a new unit within sight range of a CERC units (should resolve this report: https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1179623841560019036/1179623841560019036 )
  
• Safety added to prevent 'multi-hitting' the same Actor due to hitting multiple components/child actors/etc. that belong to it
  
• Check added so that gate doors won't 'intercept' damage for their owning gates, so that absolute radius explosions can reliably damage player gates Result: TUGS should no longer be destroyed if you carpet bomb within its detection radius. Might also be a bit more performant when hitting a group of characters, too.
  
• Added save/load of Mortar Auto-Reload and Autofire Active settings
  
• Added an extra check for clearing the Auto-Reload button for Mortars, since it sometimes 'stuck around' incorrectly when selection swapped
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when units try to deactivate their perception stimulus component when they no longer have one
  
• Fixed an issue with some infected being invisible when civilians look at them
  
• -Enhanced 'Are you Sure' setup. Supports a 'second option' (other than No) now. Used this to create an 'Are you Sure' popup when right-clicking regular civilians
  
• This popup has a second option "Don't Ask Again" which stops the popup from occurring again (and functions as 'yes'). This "Don't Ask Again" value is saved/loaded (per save file, not in the options)
  
• Updated some recruitable civvie units to have the same 'Register for Senses' setup that normal CERC units do
  
• Improved safety checks for perception monitor thread to account for new crash https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1180276949709508779/1180276949709508779
  
• Speculative fix for mortar crash https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/708293877538488410/1180335237511794798
  
• Updated Leviathan to no longer block camera
  
• Updated several Game Options to have hovertips properly (fixing them, or adding as needed)
  
• Hid the Operator Crouch Toggle option for now, since it's not yet used
  
• Fixed bridges not properly referencing their mesh (which caused issues with airstrikes not being able to damage them)
  
• Fixed a remnant of Zone Capturing sometimes modifying player population capacity
  
• Fixed tower guards taking up regular unit population capacity
  
• Fixed a potential crash should a unit be destroyed (completely - due to something like falling out of the world, not just death) while selected, due to wrongly trying to update their move preview
  
• Fixed the 'status icons' for Unit Group Windows being too large for the newer setup (so if a unit was low on ammo, it should no longer stretch the UI vertically
  
• Fixed the Ammo Tent's description (no longer references old system)
  
• Line trace added to unit-DNA-drops, to prevent aerial DNA (such as if you kill an LT while they're on a chopper)
  
• Updated a Crane mesh to use a non-camera blocking collision profile
  
• Fixed not being able to turn off 'evac to other zone' from the Civvie Admin widget
  
• Boosted Leviathan start day to 3 for Director's Cut difficulty, and 4 on Recruit.
  
• Disabled explosive damage falloff on infected tunnels, so they won't ignore damage from SMAWs (and potentially other explosives) from certain angles
  
• Added 'BlockAllButCameraDynamic' collision profile. Used this to make infected tunnels NOT block camera
  
• Fixed vision not being properly shared to 'gun-enabled passengers' for certain vehicles (such as the Sparrow helicopter)
  
• Smoothed out some of the 'activation' of 'holding area to evac helipad' logic, so civilian evacuations should run more smoothly now
  

Please note the following going forward (Restart your game/steam to get the update if needed
[/expand]

[expand]
https://youtu.be/7hdBPmUtFb8
https://youtu.be/GV3YOssGEfs
[h3]Letter from the Producer[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/3718325557390407190
[h3]New Roadmap system [/h3]
We now have a new system for our community to follow along on development. This website will break down all the major systems that are coming each patch. It will not include hotfixes/bug fixes. Sections inside TBD can be included randomly if we are ahead of schedule
https://www.notion.so/cepheusprotocol/Cepheus-Protocol-31f1b25ce00148d6844825f4a0c0bc08
[/expand]

[expand]
Everything goes towards expanding the team and building a better game!
[h3] Consider Supporting us on Patreon[/h3]
[h3] Merch Store [/h3]

[h3]Cepheus Protocol Anthology[/h3]
Experience the outbreak of the Pangu Virus from multiple perspectives across as the brave heroes of the Center for Epidemic Research and Control battle tirelessly to stop the spread of a cataclysmic alien virus that has mutated innocent people into monstrous creatures of unimaginable power
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1707120/Cepheus_Protocol_Anthology_Season_1/
[h3]First 40 Minutes of Cepheus Protocol Anthology Season 1 [/h3]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eWbDibGMrU
[/expand]

So its been a while huh? Im sure a lot of our eager fans are curious what we've been doing over the last year or so since the last letter so I'll run you through everything we have to date and explain a few things we are working on and beyond.



Where other zombie games in the genre have asked "How will you die" (Project Zomboid), Cepheus Protocol dares to ask "How will you survive". Giving you the tools of a recently created new branch called CERC its now your job to tackle how to handle the spreading Pangu Virus. We are dedicated to continuing to work with our community to keep refining Cepheus Protocol till its a true gem.

It should be noted that while we embrace critical feedback it should be given in a manner that is respectful and conductive of actually having a conversation. I.E Don't say X is Bad fix it. Say X is bad because of X,Y,Z . Then we can start to have a meaningful conversation. It should be noted naturally all suggestions cannot be implemented but we will keep them in mind for a possible addition in the future depending on scope budget etc.



Over the course of this year we've had a lot of successes and failures. We successfully were able to implement Weapon Damage graphs removing player confusion on how some guns were better then others when it came to ranged damage,

Revamped the entire gameplay UI/Minimap and Main Menu's making them more appealing to look at. We do plan on doing some color tint adjustments to the icons based on feedback to make them a bit more colorful but that wont be coming for at least 2-3 more months. We pushed the new Stationary Avenger Turret and tons of other features in 1.2-1.3.





Sadly we had to make the decision to remove "factions" (Piece & Natalie) for the time being as they were not where we needed them to be and we want to regroup on them potentially in the future when we have access to more resources. As the project Director i have to make extremely hard calls on a daily/weekly basis that hurts me to do so but in the effort of keeping us on schedule/budget of what we promised for having coop and our campaign out by 2024. Sadly this was also extending to removing the feature of allowing players to set "genders" on solders and instead we went the typical route of every other RTS where X unit is always X gender and Factions being disabled.

To run through the basic math the initial characters were created from asset packs from our EA launch great for "starting" but they provide no identity to the game. Currently the Assault is the only mesh "final" besides all the vehicles. Each new Character roughly cost 2k + the fee for swapping the male base to a female. When weighting the cost of this vs having more units like the Abrams and shifting that money over to programming for more bug fixing it just made sense on paper. Really does suck but we are a self funded indie studio with Developers backing the project so we had to make the decision.

[h2]Dynamic Civilian Groups[/h2]

As a compromise we pushed Dynamic Civilian groups as they could be implemented and give the player more difficulty as we flesh them out. They didnt have the upfront cost of being distinctly different Meshes/having unique vehicles so we figured this would help in the aspect of simulation.
First off by treating Civilians badly Militias will form that hate you and will hunt you down, secondly when we added the diplomacy system/trading and lasty when we add the ability for them to upgrade their arms receiving RPG's to battle the upcoming Abrams/CERC medium armor as well. Civilians will continue to receive updates in the future as we work to better simulate them from a Pandemic standpoint.

Currently on our backlog for them is:

1. Civilian's can be given orders when allied with
   
2. Civilians can give you zone missions to farm rep with them
   
3. Civilians have improved abilities to barter with other groups and form alliances with AI groups
   

As it stands we are currently in 1.3 as noted in recent patch notes on Steam/Epic we are almost halfway through 1.3 with the Aircraft Carrier being one of the hardest technical feats we'll be tackling in the weeks to come. After that is wrapped up we will make the decision to either revamp the Operator or put him off for a few more weeks and instead focus on the Doctrine/CERC polish with the DNA Research tree work.

From a community standpoint im quite sure im reading the room correctly when i say they would much prefer this route. So i'll detail both so i can bring you folks up to speed.

[h2]Doctrine/ CERC Polish[/h2]

1. Modular Abrams added that you can customize (Different armor loadouts like ADS, Cage Armor)
   
2. Helicopters gain weapon packages, Machine guns and Rocket launcher packages (Blackhawk & Littlebird)
   
3. Helicopters get a brand new flight AI
   
4. VTOL added as a late game extremely fast Jet that can transport units very fast across the battlefield
   
5. Mines will be removed from being built as one offs and instead you'll build a vehicle that you "zone" an area and he'll keep that field saturated automatically
   
6. Individual mines will be moved to the Sniper
   
7. Engineers will gain 2-3 pet turrets they can build(Think Aliens disposable turrets)
   
8. Current Turrets will be removed as buildable emplacements and new ones will be created that are far superior (Think Prototype Turrets)
   
9. Helicopter Physics
   
10. We are still debating more airstrikes/call in's

Yes your CAMO DLC"s will apply to all future CERC Vehicles



[h2]DNA Research Tree[/h2]

1. We will be adding a Mobile Research Atlas that can deploy in Contagion zones and farm DNA it must be protected at all costs and you'll have to escort it back to your base if u wish to keep the spoils
   
2. DNA research tree will be added making the approach of researching the Pangu Virus a more "involved" process requiring you to make tactical decisions in terms of do i increase my filter levels so i can stay in Contagion zones longer or do i research say a treatment that makes your units less likely to be infected when Meleed? The choice will be yours
   

[h2]Operator Changes[/h2]

1. We will be taking what we learned through prototyping CPO to fully implement a modern shooter approach to the Operators third person mode. Please note this game mode was made for fun to just benchmark and see what we could do to make a better Operator. (See video linked below) We likely will make a spin off in the future with the "Operators' on steam at a latter time themed around 3 deferent unique gamemodes but thats a topic for another day.
   
2. We will be adding the ability to pick and choose Operator abilities and call in as many as your population will allow to create persistent Heroes that "lead" the way
   

https://youtu.be/p0ULGHmjP1Q

[h2]Infected AI & LT AI[/h2]

1. The big whammy! We will be focusing a few weeks on each AI on their own hunting down bugs naturally
   
2. Each LT will gain the ability to be repurchased like Winters allowing Chelsey to bring back her fallen Hero's they will each own territory outlined on the map (Think Warlords of New York Division 2)
   
3. Each LT will be based on different archetypes of gameplay. I.E Stealth/Support/Attacking directly and be given new abilities to reflect that
   
4. Chelsey will be getting boss states as with the LT's to make them a lot more knowledgeable of what to do in certain situations. I.E Retreat/Call in help /Disguise herself
   
5. We will be tackling the Infected can climb buildings prototyping we did years ago and roll it out on the larger map. At the time the tech was quite buggy on our larger map so we've had to delay it. If it doesn't work out of the box we'll have to engineer something custom.
   
6. Infected swimming is still on the fence with the implementation of the carrier i haven't made a final decision yet but its being discussed internally.
   

[h2]San Francisco North[/h2]

1. Is on hold till modelers are freed up so they can move back to figuring out that island and getting it textured and fully playable. We only have 2 level designers/Modelers we moved them over to working on vehicles and such for the time being since these beasts can take up to a month per one because of the sheer amount of detail that goes into them.
   

[h2] Coop [/h2]

1. Well at this point we will be spending a few weeks to months ironing out bugs in secret for coop tests we'll be doing internally.
   
2. In a way we'll be also secretly streamlining some code for modding/readability since once we add coop we dont want to be stuck with outdated approaches . An example would be how we do the command bar system at the bottom right we've leaned a lot between our release and now and this is an example of a very dirty system we will rip out and redo so its easier for us and future modders to work with.
   
3. We will standardize some approaches to how we created vehicles to make them easier to work with
   
4. We will implement GAS for all unit abilities so that aspect of replication is just done for us. Its basically a gameplay abilities framework we didnt know exsisted till very recently so we want to port vast aspects of the game to it so it makes our job of replication/coop much easier. Give you an example Remnant 2 uses the system and Fortnite since its so modular and easy to create new stuff from the tutorials we've sourced.
   

As we do every year i will be putting up a "Developer Report Poll" towards the mid part of December for our fans to vote on anything they would like to see in 2024 or even for us to consider beyond our EA release date. We thank you guys for your continued support and patience! You will be able to rate our development over 2023 and give an honest opinion of what you liked/disliked either anonymously or leave your contact details so if we have questions we can contact you.

Also feel free to drop into our Monthly AmA's this Saturday!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/3896239307766160089



Currently we are working speedily towards the completion of Pandemic Mode that will end roughly around 1.4 for our Early Access phases of development. Then we will start work on the campaign and start preparing to leave EA hopefully at the end of 2024

I will be following up again right before we go radio silent to revamp and we get the game ready for coop. So next time i post one of these keep a lookout!

We will be live on Youtube and in our Discord AmA channel for those wanting to listen in on voice.

• This Saturday, we will take the stage and communicate with you directly. We'll discuss what we've been up to this month, address any issues, changes, etc., and potentially talk about necessary changes for the next time we meet. These will take place on Discord & Youtube.
  

If your experiencing crashes/instability please try a Steam Verify/Display Drivers update before contacting us.

(Click Show details for a full breakdown of the changes)
[expand]

• Updated camera zoom: Zoom is faster, so it takes less scrolling to zoom fully in or out
  
• Zoom again operates on deltatime, so it should no longer slow down if your framerate is lower
  
• Civilian intake Updated civilians to move to intake in mobs, rather than only one-by-one-by-one. Fixed evac 'breaking' if units were already mobbed up
  
• Large boost to minimum camera movement speed
  
• Large boost to minimum camera movement speed, and made it configurable (MinimumCameraSpeed in Pawn_PlayerCamera)
  
• Added multiplier to zoom out speed 'ZoomOutMultiplier', set it to 4.5 so player can zoom most/all the way out with one mouse wheel spin
  
• Fixed div/0 issues in PurchaseReload for Mortars and Turrets
  
• Resolved camera speed issue that occurs if you adjust camera speed from the Keyboard widget
  
• Moved the camera move speed slider to GameOptions instead of the disabled Keyboard options widget
  
• Updated the camera move speed slider to a newer widget format that supports more features. And used this to set the camera move speed range to 0.5-1.5 (instead of 0-1)
  
• Updated Game User Settings now, instead of the 'ControlOptions' .sav type. Camera Speed no longer Public in the camera: uses setter, getter, and 'percent setter' for sliders
  
• Various Tick group adjustments for AmbientCivvieSplineWalkers & NightDay system
  
• Shut off tick for Grenade meshes (they likely should be static meshes anyway)
  
• Quick spelling error fix (Black Angles to Black Angels)
  
• Fixed Infected Turrets registering to the same turret registry as regular turrets, which caused the game to erroneously block turret construction due to infected turrets 'taking up the slots'
  
• Added a fix for parachutes not detaching from vehicles
  
• Fixed the 'doctrine skill point amount text' blocking mouse clicks on the doctrines button
  -CERC 'warning helicopters'
  
• CERC 'warning helicopters' Fixed them not spawning
  
• CERC 'warning helicopters' Fixed them failing to load mesh/sounds
  
• CERC 'warning helicopters' Adjusted some of the air patrol splines to no longer clip into buildings
  
• Added GrenadeVFX spawn check. If explosion location is NOT in camera view frustum and NOT within 4 times the explosion radius of the explosive itself, then VFX will not spawn.Saves a good amount of performance in explosive-heavy saves (such as with mortars, etc.)
  
• Fixed Unarmed Ajax not applying Camo correctly.
  

Please note the following going forward (Restart your game/steam to get the update if needed
[/expand]

[expand]
https://youtu.be/7hdBPmUtFb8
https://youtu.be/GV3YOssGEfs
[h3]Letter from the Producer[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/3718325557390407190
[h3]New Roadmap system [/h3]
We now have a new system for our community to follow along on development. This website will break down all the major systems that are coming each patch. It will not include hotfixes/bug fixes. Sections inside TBD can be included randomly if we are ahead of schedule
https://www.notion.so/cepheusprotocol/Cepheus-Protocol-31f1b25ce00148d6844825f4a0c0bc08
[/expand]

[expand]
Everything goes towards expanding the team and building a better game!
[h3] Consider Supporting us on Patreon[/h3]
[h3] Merch Store [/h3]

[h3]Cepheus Protocol Anthology[/h3]
Experience the outbreak of the Pangu Virus from multiple perspectives across as the brave heroes of the Center for Epidemic Research and Control battle tirelessly to stop the spread of a cataclysmic alien virus that has mutated innocent people into monstrous creatures of unimaginable power
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1707120/Cepheus_Protocol_Anthology_Season_1/
[h3]First 40 Minutes of Cepheus Protocol Anthology Season 1 [/h3]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eWbDibGMrU
[/expand]

If you're experiencing crashes/instability please try a Steam Verify/Display Drivers update before contacting us.

(Click Show details for a full breakdown of the changes)
[expand]

• Reputation:Removed 'passive reputation loss from comparison between zones' for now, due to civilian factions storing their rep in their home zone (once this is decoupled, can re-enable this, but without this reputation will typically plummet if you declare war on any civilian faction)
  
• Added early version of 'reputation viewer tooltip': highlighting your reputation meter on the Diplomacy or Trade window will show you active events that are affecting that faction. This typically won't show 'one-off' reputation effects
  
• Added a 'civilian intake zone limit' (default 2) to the Zone Manager
  
• The Civilian Admin popup now lists which zones have Civilian Intake active, and disables if you have too many active
  
• Includes a message informing you of this if you try to turn on another zone's Civilian Intake while at limit
  
• Additional fixes to Mortar erroneous self damage (should still be able to damage self normally, just not abnormally. :P )
  
• Fixed Garrison Vehicles to redirect right clicks onto their owning building, to stop repair orders from 'failing' because the garrison vehicle intercepted it
  
• Extended borders for certain zones adjacent to bridges, to include those bridges.
  
• nitial commit of Mortar building reload+ammo cost setup
  
• $250 cost-per-shell
  
• Updated Mortar groundfire indicator to switch to a red material if the Mortar firing it is out of ammo
  
• Addendum to previous commit: also updated the 'scaling sprite' color to match 'ammoless state' for mortar groundfire indicator
  
• Added a Mortar version of the Auto Reload button
  
• First pass on Mortars requiring an 'ammo source' (ammo airdrop, barracks, etc.) to reload
  
• Some basic messages added on activating Auto Reload or trying to manually reload when there's missing ammo and no supply nearby
  
• Fixed the 'move characters out of the way' library function to no longer scoot turrets or mortars
  
• Ammoboxes now display their supply meter if near a Mortar
  
• Mortars require supply to reload
  
• Mortar Updated building hovertip
  
• Mortar Updated hovertips for Auto Reload and Reload
  
• Mortar Updated Reload to not be enabled unless missing ammo
  
• Mortar Updated auto reload to properly run if ammo source reaches the Mortar while it's empty
  
• Updated Ammo Runners to not deliver ammo to Mortars (they were doing it for free, like it was a regular character)
  
• Updated hovertip for Mortars to not reference the Supply Atlas yet (since that doesn't support Mortars yet)
  
• Added Ammo Truck (Supply/Ammo Atlas) basic support to building-type Mortars
  
• For now, Mortars will be able to reload/auto reload if an Ammo/Supply Atlas is deployed within range
  
• This still costs cash, but since Ammo/Supply Atlases do not have a supply limit so far, this doesn't cost anything extra
  
• Updated price display for Turret/Mortar reload hovertip(s) to be more accurate if the player has the 40% doctrine
  
• Updated price calculation for reload call to no longer fail if you do not have enough money for an undiscounted bullet (discounts, like the 40% discount, are now taken into consideration for those initial checks)
  
• Click-to-target logic for Mortars improved, to stop some 'regular unit safeties' from blocking it
  
• Structures deprioritized in autofire logic, including clearing current autofire target if it's a structure and a non-structure is detected
  
• Click-to-target logic improved to clear autofire (previously, autofire would block right click)
  
• Fixed a crash with saving, in some cases, where something might have an invalid faction manager
  
• Started improving move proxy synergy with queued move orders
  
• Improvements to attack move to detect 'obstructed-but-visible' targets, to allow units to continue to attack move destination instead of 'staying still to try to shoot at something that we do not have an angle against'
  
• Fixed a check for vehicle aiming that was using Muzzle instead of Aim Source (likely was causing some 'turret overcorrection', especially on longer barrel weapons like the Cerberus cannon)
  
• Started on Unit Mover merge logic (not activated yet, since other criterion needed for limiting unit movers, otherwise this'll just cause more unit movers to spawn)
  
• Updated the main AnimBP to update 'Garrisoned' via delegate, and updated the 'AnimGarrisoned' tracker bool's name, and to only run updates for it if the C++ says we're garrisoned. (looks like it'll save some ~.002ms per ungarrisoned unit in their animBP)
  
• Updated 'DetermineGib' to not run for units that are not visible in the Fog of War (so civvie/factions vs infected won't spawn niagara effects for no reason, unless you have vision of it)
  
• Camera Fixed unit camera following (via INSERT) to work with the new system
  
• Camera Implemented a CepheusSpringArmComponent, and used that to make an improved version of its 'camera probe collision check' to reduce the amount of clipping. vUnlike regular check, the updated version supports a 'max trace distance', so when you're very zoomed out it'll skip over things near to the ground (so passing a skyscraper won't suddenly pull the camera back in)
  
• Fixed a bool issue in the the Anim BP that I introduced with a previous optimization (caused units who exited garrison to still animate as if they were within one)
  
• Camera Adjusted Threshold to avoid camera getting 'stuck too high in the air' sometimes
  
• Camera Adjusted follow camera height offset to not use height offset for vehicles (looks awkward for helicopters)
  
• Camera Added camera height offset of 48 to stop some situations where camera would get a bit 'stuck' in the ground at close zooms (requiring you to zoom out a lot before the camera visibly zoomed)
  
• Camera Disabled some camera lag to make slow motion work a bit more smoothly
  
• Camera Also fixed zooming in/out with slomo
  
• Camera Fixed 'camera follow unit' to function better on the newer system (avoids attachment, since the TargetVector system handles that well enough)
  
• Camera Adjusted height adjustment traces to ignore the camera Follow Target
  
• Camera Updated 'height threshold' to 80K (from 3K) so camera doesn't get 'stuck' high in the air
  Edit for grid 1 landscape, corner near the grocery store
  
• Camera Added an extra trace for 'ground only blocking traces', to stop the camera from being able to 'go through the ground' when really zoomed out
  
• Camera 'avoid clip into stuff' traces updated to better recognize landscapes/water: Z-check done to make it
• massively* more consistent for long-distance checks
  
• Updated landscapes for Calypso and the Horde Maps to be marked a 'Ground' collision for this purpose, too
  -Camera
  
• Camera Keyboard movement should be more uniform with mouse movement
  
• Camera Keyboard movement no longer should stutter when toggling slo-mo on
  
• Camera Updated camera rotation to no longer be delta-time dependent, to resolve 'slomo jitter'
  
• Camera Fixed up some Operator/new pawn camera interactions
  
• Fixed incorrect shading on Carrier and water surface.
  
• Minor optimizations.
  
• Added some impact particle effect spawn checks to reduce number of particles spawning for performance's sake (gun/impact effects won't spawn if they hit a non-rendered actor, now)
  
• Updated the GameState to track visible enemy structures
  
• Updated Mortars to use the GameState's visible enemy/structure registries instead of each mortar having a huge collision sphere, Performance gain seems to be roughly .1ms per Mortar
  
• Adjusted gib and impact effects spawn check to no longer have a 'not hidden in fog' condition (they still have the 'recently rendered' condition, however)
  
• Wheels will now accurately match velocity and will no longer break upon reaching max speed nor reset when stopping.
  
• Halloween mode turned off
  
• Added logic to reduce the amount of times gibs spawn: If a unit is not rendered and they die, they will not spawn gibs. If a unit is in the fog of war and they die, they will spawn gibs if they are in the camera's view frustum
  
• Set up Faction civilian clutter to no longer be independently visible: should now just appear when you see the main tent of a stronghold
  
• Set up Faction civilian walls to use the PerceptionMonitor thread, instead of not doing that - additionally should no longer remain as a stimulus once the main tent of the stronghold has been seen
  
• Set up an additional Impact Effect check for weapons hitting surfaces to not try to spawn the impact if the location is not within view frustum
  
• Set up a basic optimization to try to deactivate RotorWash particles when helicopters are offscreen (or if in air, if the location under them is offscreen) Result: In a lategame save, number of sight queries dropped from ~150K to ~61K (~90K drop, in-engine drops perception system cost from ~20ms to ~8.2ms)
  
• Updated camera zoom:
  
• Zoom is faster, so it takes less scrolling to zoom fully in or out
  
• Zoom again operates on deltatime, so it should no longer slow down if your framerate is lower
  
• Updated civilians to move to intake in mobs, rather than only one-by-one-by-one
  
• Fixed evac 'breaking' if units were already mobbed up
  

Please note the following going forward (Restart your game/steam to get the update if needed
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[expand]
https://youtu.be/7hdBPmUtFb8
https://youtu.be/GV3YOssGEfs
[h3]Letter from the Producer[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/3718325557390407190
[h3]New Roadmap system [/h3]
We now have a new system for our community to follow along on development. This website will break down all the major systems that are coming each patch. It will not include hotfixes/bug fixes. Sections inside TBD can be included randomly if we are ahead of schedule
https://www.notion.so/cepheusprotocol/Cepheus-Protocol-31f1b25ce00148d6844825f4a0c0bc08
[/expand]

[expand]
Everything goes towards expanding the team and building a better game!
[h3] Consider Supporting us on Patreon[/h3]
[h3] Merch Store [/h3]

[h3]Cepheus Protocol Anthology[/h3]
Experience the outbreak of the Pangu Virus from multiple perspectives across as the brave heroes of the Center for Epidemic Research and Control battle tirelessly to stop the spread of a cataclysmic alien virus that has mutated innocent people into monstrous creatures of unimaginable power
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1707120/Cepheus_Protocol_Anthology_Season_1/
[h3]First 40 Minutes of Cepheus Protocol Anthology Season 1 [/h3]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eWbDibGMrU
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