Cepheus Protocol News

Patch Notes - 0.7.72 Open World Revamp [ Public Beta Only ]

[h2]Patch Notes - 0.7.72 Open World Revamp & Our Development Intentions [/h2]

Old Saves will not carry over, only play in the public beta to give feedback never play "real" games in the public beta as game sessions can and will be broken from time to time from the vast number of things we test here at any given time. I.E we dont support save files started from a public beta -> a normal build.

Do note you can only access this latest patch on our public beta branch. Anyone can opt in and play it by right clicking on the game on their steam library going to properties and then opting into the beta from the "beta" tab on steam.

It is our intention over the next few days to weeks to fully polish up Treasure Island and the two new surrounding provinces with the feedback of our community. We have added a LOT in this new update so I apologize if something is omitted in the patch notes.

Naturally the roadmap will be affected by this extra time spent on polishing up the "Open World Map" but we believe its time well spent to ensure every section is fleshed out and provides interesting gameplay opportunities in each zone of the world.

You can track our progress as its updated daily on our Trello board here
https://trello.com/b/b5DFiVyv/cepheus-protocol-development
On this link you can track our new release targets for 2020-2021
https://trello.com/c/b8UXIihr/888-release-targets-2020-2021

The goal of this test is to gauge how you folks feel about the current layout and new direction. We want to gather as much data as possible on the likes/dislikes of the current design so we can take them into consideration as we work to finalize the world.

[h2]Some Quick updates from our Discord[/h2]

The Tutorial girl that talks to you will be animated and given an Avatar in the future. Here's a first look at this!

Check out our currently in progress WIP Main Menu layout we'll roll out soon obviously some buttons will be grayed out as they wont be available yet

Rough Render of the new Open World Map

We are also working on the UI for coop at the moment as well. Still Early!

Organization of Internal file structure for modding in the future
Adjusted physical location of Presido & Angel Island and the new support Island north of Treasure Island
Names of Weapons cleaned up how they physically display
Doctrines are now live give us your feedback!
New Winters mesh added
New Chelsey mesh added
Cable Component resolved to properly attach to CERC trailer as a test when they are being dropped
into the level (Will be expanded to other buildings once we polish up the effect)
New right click safeties in to remove offset that was created outside the play region
Utilizing the first major pass of an animation revamp allowing more fluid body movements
Wind VFX readded to foliage
Minor pathing improvements
Units can no longer shoot and rappel at the same time
Upon repairing a wall it will no longer block the ability for a unit to fire through it
Amount of infected allowed in the game in directors cut have been doubled for Defense and Horde Attacks
Attenuation adjusted across the board to make SFX easier to hear
WIP Minimap generated
SFX for all weapons polished to add more variations
Destructible Bridges added (only certain segments)
Fixed Turrets not saving correctly
Crash fix added for Infection Pods
Bridge Repair Logic added (Engineers can repair them)
Safeties added to Horde to ensure they always reach their target location
Starting Camera Height adjusted to allow it to easily go lower to the ground
Adjusted Pod locations in G5 that were too cramped causing spawning issues
Hospital is now capturable again
All weapons have been rebalanced to make them far more effective (That means the Spec Ops is now a viable unit now )
Critical Hits chances that knock over infected have been increased
SFX Passes to add more audio states to all vehicles

All weapons crit chance was set to default of 5% originally,

SMGS---

UMP:

Damage was increased from 11 to 30
RPM: 650
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 4%
Rank 1: 6%
Rank 2: 9%
Rank 3: 12%
Rank 4: 18%

MP7:

Damage was increased from 8 to 12
RPM: 1100
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 2%
Rank 1: 5%
Rank 2: 8%
Rank 3: 12%
Rank 4: 15%

P90:

Damage was increased from 10 to 15
RPM: 900
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 4%
Rank 1: 7%
Rank 2: 10%
Rank 3: 12%
Rank 4: 16%

LMGS--

M240:

Damage was decreased from 55 to 45
RPM: 600
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 3%
Rank 1: 7%
Rank 2: 8%
Rank 3: 12%
Rank 4: 15%

M249:

Damage was decreased from 50 to 40
RPM: 680
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 4%
Rank 1: 8%
Rank 2: 9%
Rank 3: 12%
Rank 4: 16%

DMR--

MK14:

Damage was increased from 55 to 65
RPM: 360
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 6%
Rank 1: 9%
Rank 2: 13%
Rank 3: 15%
Rank 4: 18%

Sniper--

M1017:

Damage was not adjusted still 150
RPM: 96
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 6%
Rank 1: 9%
Rank 2: 12%
Rank 3: 16%
Rank 4: 20%

Shotguns:

M1014:

Damage was decrease from 50 to 45
RPM: 300
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 2%
Rank 1: 5%
Rank 2: 8%
Rank 3: 10%
Rank 4: 13%

Saiga 12:

No changes to core values
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 3%
Rank 1: 5%
Rank 2: 8%
Rank 3: 12%
Rank 4: 15%

Dp12:

No changes to core values
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 3%
Rank 1: 6%
Rank 2: 8%
Rank 3: 10%
Rank 4: 13%

Assualt Rifles:

M4:

Damage was increased from 11 to 20
RPM: 850
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 3%
Rank 1: 6%
Rank 2: 8%
Rank 3: 10%
Rank 4: 15%

Scar:

Damage was increased from 15 to 30
RPM: 650
crit chance:
Unit Level 0-4
Rank 0: 6%
Rank 1: 10%
Rank 2: 12%
Rank 3: 14%
Rank 4: 17%

Cepheus Protocol Novelization is now available on Steam Store!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1387390/Cepheus_Protocol_Novelization

Keep in mind this book takes place before, during and a bit after Pandemic mode and follows dozens of characters around the events of CP. It will hint to our year 2 content(So spoilers if you analyze it close enough). Its not for the faint of heart (Very violent deaths and all that). You can pick it up for $3.99 now!

It will also be available on the Steam Store as an DLC on October 1st if you prefer to get it there! Just keep in mind on our website we make 99% of the sale the rest goes to PayPal

Feel free to use the #💬lore-questions on our Discord to discuss the ramifications of what the book brings to the universe and how it will affect the game as we start to work in story elements presented in the novel

Live stream AmA | November 29th at 12 PM PST (Rescheduled)

[h3]Rescheduled AmA[/h3]

Please note the original event scheduled for October 31st was rescheduled due to medical concerns. More information can be found in our Discord announcements channel. We apologize for any confusion this caused.

[h3]Overview[/h3]

Example Format of our previous AmA
https://youtu.be/ZznhKn8hPU4

Overview

This will be our second Ama and we plan on showcasing a lot of new features/systems we've been working to bring to completion by December, We'll go over the new Doctrines system, Open World Map and the Levitation implementation. Talk about modding, coop and the newly released Novel as well. We will have various team members from different divisions present and will be answering questions live.

Schedule

Doctrines, Open World & Levitation Updates(Shipped and a discussion on the systems
Post Mortem)
Q&A (Novel etc, any topic except below mentioned ones)
Factions Modding & Coop
Q&A Conclusion (Factions, Modding & Coop targeted)

We will be taking questions throughout the event! These will be huge reveals and we will be broadcasting on our twitch page. Link at the bottom!

Cepheus Protocol AMA/Showcase

We'll be answering your questions live and also discussing the last 2 months of the year and what we'll be implementing.

You can join our Discord and leave questions for us to answer in between intermissions on our discord via the october-ama channel or tune in live and we'll answer your questions live.

Join it here

[h3]Time and Date[/h3]

November 29th at 12 PM PST (Steam will auto convert it to your time zone if you subscribe to the event)

[h3]Broadcast Link[/h3]
Follow our Twitch here so you can get the notification there if you wish!
https://www.twitch.tv/halcyonwinds

Until next time, good luck in Treasure Island!

Patch Notes - 0.7.70 More Customization Options & Preload for new Content

Each update this week will ship more tweaks, adjustments and additions to the build to prepare for the open world map and doctrines, both of which are scheduled to drop on Halloween.

We are also working on a new main menu for ingame and launcher for when we add modding from the roadmap.
(Early WIP)

AmA on Halloween Details check it out here
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/2867062153648512410

[h2]Patch Notes - 0.7.70 More Customization Options & Preload for new Content relating to the open world update and doctrines. [/h2]

Improved UI support for 'OneClip' weapons to properly display low ammo anim when the actual clip is low
Preloaded Content for Doctrines and Open World Update
Added saving/loading for the 'call-in' helicopters, so they properly drop off their unit if you save while the helicopter is en route (instead of taking your money and leaving)
Added weapon 'piercing' logic:
Guns now have a 'PiercingStrength', which represents how many targets it can pierce before the next target stops it.
M107 given piercing strength of 5
Minigun given piercing strength of 4
Tuned the Minigun a bit: still very powerful, but Michael wants to tune it manually later
Created weapon 'spin up' logic (For the minigun, and potentially other guns in the future):
Updated 'grenade overlap' logic to be more modular, with a new version that has a radial overlap instead of a box overlap
Updated the parentage of the carpet bomb overlap to work with the new hierarchy
Improved custom call in to have a 'preview scale' for the preview mesh used for the call-in
Improved custom call in to properly recognize 'RequiresHero' bool
Hooked up new customizable settings (and backend updates to support 'em):
Starting Population (starting unit capacity) adjusted for Recruit Mode to 12 initially
Zone Population Boost added to customization window(multiplier for how much zone captures will boost your unit capacity)
Also added Juniardi's new dividers for the settings in the Difficulty Adjuster widget

[h2]Cepheus Protocol AMA/Showcase[/h2]

Work on our other maps have started officially in the last week and we hope to have more to share in the coming weeks! Keep in mind a LOT of our week this week into the Little bird and doctrine updates so make sure to check out our dev-update channel on discord to see the daily updates we do!

If you missed our AmA you can watch it here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZznhKn8hPU4

Cepheus Protocol Novelization is now available on Steam Store!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1387390/Cepheus_Protocol_Novelization

Cepheus Protocol Novelization is also available on our website! Buy it here!

Keep in mind this book takes place before, during and a bit after Pandemic mode and follows dozens of characters around the events of CP. It will hint to our year 2 content(So spoilers if you analyze it close enough). Its not for the faint of heart (Very violent deaths and all that). You can pick it up for $3.99 now!

It will also be available on the Steam Store as an DLC on October 1st if you prefer to get it there! Just keep in mind on our website we make 99% of the sale the rest goes to PayPal

Feel free to use the #💬lore-questions on our Discord to discuss the ramifications of what the book brings to the universe and how it will affect the game as we start to work in story elements presented in the novel

[h2]Stage 2 Chelsey WIP[/h2]

Animation Revamp

Ever since we heard some feedback regarding the stiffness of our units/animations we have been hard at work finding a solution. We are now working on implementing a better RIG and Animation Blueprint to give us even more control including starting to utilize a Mocap suit to really make these animations shine as we work towards 1.0. Here's a quick preview of what we have in store for you folks in the coming weeks via a total animation revamp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqpNGvAZJ8k&feature=youtu.be

Until next time, good luck in Treasure Island!

Patch Notes - 0.7.69 Custom Game Start and Maintenance update for Doctrines

[h2]Doctrines & the Open World | October 30th after AmA [/h2]

The highly requested game customization feature is now live!

AmA on Halloween Details check it out here
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/2867062153648512410

We are aware of the Horde map population bug and we are working on a fix, expect a hotfix in the next day.

[h2]Patch Notes - 0.7.69 Custom Game Start and Maintenance update for Doctrines [/h2]

Grenade sound class fix and Engineer death and damage vo temp unhook
Added saving for 'collapse' button logic
Further boosted 'safety delay' after collapse run, to ensure it works in the master
Changed default columns to 4 for save file columns
Fixed the zone income display not properly displaying on loading a save that already has income (didn't stop income from coming, but it didn't show properly unless something occurred to change income)
Fixed a spawn pod in Grid 6 being too close to a building, causing spawns to get stuck in said building
Set up a Main Menu difficulty option 'Custom', for bringing up the custom difficulty sliders
Started on an 'advanced options' tab for the Difficulty adjuster (hidden for now)
Added a console command 'ShowDifficultyAdjuster' for showing it during gameplay (it works, performing live changes when you hit 'CONFIRM'!)
Added some updates to group widget generation and 'making visible' to try to reduce overlaps (not perfect)
Also increased starting group widget width
Tons of classified Doctrine system adjustments

Animation Revamp

Patch Notes - 0.7.68 Population System adjustments and Increased Horde sizes

New Doctrines update coming by the 30th!

Infected Spawn counts have been increased with this update

Dont forget about our Official AmA on Halloween check it out here
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/2867062153648512410

[h2]Patch Notes - 0.7.68 Population System adjustments and Increased Horde sizes [/h2]

New starting population is 6 (Keep reading)
Each CP post will increase population by 2x to a maximum of 42 (This will be expanded with the open world update to 80)
Started on improving unit card tech for dynamically querying size, for drag-resizing to use a bit later (just need to fix the actual wrapbox to recognize the size difference now)
Engineer VO adjusted and new dialogue added
Fixed up some more logic to make the cards able to 'dynamically expand' for a garrison display widget while still calculating size correctly for wrapbox size queries as well as spacing between themselves within a wrapbox
Re-added click and drag for the group card widget: it now will detect how 'wide' the drag is and 'snap' to that number of columns (up to a maximum of 20 columns for a single group, for now)
Updated unit cards to be 'gold' if the unit is max level
Replaced the command widget
Moved the pause button and area marker button down to the bottom left (and did a little cleanup in GIMP on them)
Updated the ROE and minimap legend buttons at the top left to be the new top left button style, too
Fixed a bug with newly-purchased units 'breaking' the column-setup for the group window widgets (until you 'moved' the window or interacted with it in a similar way again)
Added a 'stopgap' fix to a 'column issue' in the Master when an array is 're-assigned' to the unit window (via new person being added, or CTRL+key pressed to set group)
Started on improving the ROE widget to be font-scalable
Set up font scaling for mouse following widgets, tutorial widget, ROE widget, and the top-right population display
Added an extra set of checks to spawning a tower:
No go if the potential node is in distress mode (i.e. has been spawning units for awhile due to player intrusion), no go
No go if the potential node has hurt pods (i.e. player has recently been there and damaged one of them. This doesn't mean pods 'without max health,' but recently injured and the player hasn't left that area yet).
Added a 'Group Switch' window to the Unit Group Widget:
Right click the group number to open it.
Select another number to 'trade' groups (and widgets, and hotkeys) with that number.
It auto-closes after a few seconds of not being hovered.
Has a hovertip that lists out the hotkey (if it has a hotkey)
Fixed some widgets having 'focusable' buttons (which messes up keyboard controls)
Added logic to boost infected health the later the game goes (i.e. more days, more infected health!)
Boosted spawn rates (both horde+defense spawning):
GameState's spawn limits boosted to allow this
Boosted the 'lerp distance' logic for units coming out of spawn pods, to reduce 'chokepoint' results from so many infected spawning now
Added unit capacity max alteration:
A little animation will play at the top right when your capacity shifts
Improved group card window 'mouse resizing'
Window will now stick with the desired width, even if it doesn't have enough cards to fill it
Window will now stick with the desired height, but expand the height if more cards come in that require more height to fit
If you use the 'column' buttons at the top right of a window, it will go back to the old behavior of 'snapping' to minimize empty space
Added an externalized 'refill ammo' button (Hotkey N)

Animation Revamp