Cepheus Protocol News

So its been a while huh? Im sure a lot of our eager fans are curious on what we've been doing over the last few months so I'll run you through some new details now...

Last 2 Development Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV3YOssGEfs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOdVk1yiuak



At the moment we are working to complete 1.2 in its entirety over the next few weeks.

• Better Camp assets/designs in general
  
• Implement Ambient Civilians that you can assume ownership over to fix the drought of units you can shelter in civilian holds. Our goal is to get to the level of PROTOTYPE 2/PROTOTYPE 1 level of immersion in the city.
  
• Introduce Dynamic Civilian camps that can multiply and increase the amount that can generate per zone . We are going to limit this on a per zone basis.
  
• Introduce Civilian Strongholds where if a Civilian group gets to a certain level of expansion they will erect larger prebuilt bases. There can only be 1 stronghold per zone. We expect 40% of Civilian groups to reach this point of technology and expect the other 60% to die before they get to this point.
  
• Introduce simulated trading/diplomacy between civilian groups.
  
• We will be adding a currency for civilian groups called "Supply" Which they will use as a currency for you to convert CERC cash to "buy" goodwill with a civilian group
  
• This supply will determine how quickly they build more camps and strongholds only at the moment. It could also lead into how well armed/armored they are. But we are still on the fence about this.
• Cleanup/Bug fix any remaining issues with civilian evacuations
  
• Introduce Boat Evacuations in preparation for San Fran North's eventual addition. Basically you can build a boat house that will ferry units to your carrier. Only will be placeable where prebuilt docks in the level already exists.
  
• You will be able to trade "Supply" to attempt to bring factions back to good faith like the Civilian groups. Likely we will add a cap that if you keep betraying them they will accept your supply but refuse to ally with you regardless.
  
• Introduce Waystations for evacuations zones where civilians that are waiting for a helicopter can "wait" to reduce the clutter that can occur with them overlapping sometimes these will be entirely optional but allow you to setup "waiting zones" for security reasons.
  
• Implement Green, Yellow and Red zone logic where infected and civilians can battle and "simulate" daily life. Kinda like this video linked below
  
• Modernize the Top left UI elements so they are more appealing to look at like ROE
  

Green, Yellow, Red zone reference video
https://youtu.be/s1eDEhRR_W0?t=266


Our goal is to have started 1.3 by the beginning of May and disable and work on 1 faction at a time till they are all functional. I.E The Police Faction (Pierce) & and Anarchist(Natalie)

[h2]Changes to The Police Faction in 1.3[/h2]

1. Pierce will start with Officers and Swat across the map and Operate from a few central Police Stations.
   
2. As they fail to contain the infection he will eventually lose a huge portion of his officers and fall back to 1 central Police station to run his operations from.
   
3. They will have 4 Unit types (Patrol Officer, Swat, Swat Sniper and Firemen/Medic.
   
4. Firemen/Medics will operate ambulances early game to help heal help/everyone in the field
   
5. Firemen/Medics will eventually transition around the mid game mark to discontinue usage of their ambulances and be militarized to work directly with the police faction in their attack units/defense teams. They will essentially become their combat medic.
   
6. At mid game Pierce will start to vassalize civilian groups and start forming alliances with everyone but Raiders. His attitude towards you will mirror how your treating civilians and his men in the field.
   
7. You will be able to trade "Supply" to attempt to bring factions back to good faith like the Civilian groups. Likely we will add a cap that if you keep betraying them they will accept your supply but refuse to ally with you regardless.
   
8. They will ambush your vehicles kill your drivers and turn them into supply at their bases if your an enemy of them
   
9. They will have 4 vehicle types. (Police Copter, Patrol Vehicle, APC and JLTV police variant)
   

[h2]Changes to The Anarchist Faction in 1.3[/h2]

1. Anarchist will have a staggered start and only form sometime after day 2-3 of the virus.
   
2. Anarchist will be "undercover" and you will not be able to easily determine who is a member of this faction unless you track back ambushes/catch them in the act attacking another party or you.
   
3. They will ambush your vehicles kill your drivers and turn them into supply at their bases if your an enemy of them
   
4. Anarchist will be the lowest population group and show their strength through ambushes and stealth
   
5. They will have 3 vehicle types. (Hijacked News Chopper, Technical and Battle bus)
   

[h2]General Changes in 1.3[/h2]

1. Winters will gain the ability to buff units around her in terms of increasing the amount of XP they recieve from actions
   
2. Pierce will get a defensive boast to units around him
   
3. Natalie will get a stealth boast to units around her
   

• Our Water Shader will be reworked entirely see video at bottom
  
• Vehicles and their AI will be rewritten completely (We are waiting for this feature to leave beta)
  
• Buoyancy will be introduced for objects on water
  
• Aircraft carrier will be turned into a mobile unit you can produce units from, repair and refuel
  
• Aircraft carrier will turn into a unit you can move and can be attacked/docked at various locations to help stage larger attacks
  
• Bounty System will be redone entirely to make it mirror closer to Red Dead 2's approach. They will be a system where special infected with abilities are hidden across the map dynamically being selected that you can send in elite teams to kill them to gain money to recover from a huge lost recently.
  
• World Events will be introduced like mini missions CERC or other people can give you so you can gain money/supply or favor. More details will be revealed in the future for this.
  
• Chaos Destruction will be implemented to a reasonable amount to bring the game at least to the level of Company of Heroes.
  
• Improvements to Night/Day system to make it use the newer Night Day system built into Unreal Engine now.
  
• Infection System revamp. Gas towers will become deadly again and Gas masks will be a thing.
  
• DNA research tree will be added
  

Updated Water engine shaders
https://youtu.be/7y-ITjcttW8?t=386
Updating Vehicle physics & AI
https://youtu.be/Dj60HHy-Kqk?t=70
Chaos Destruction
https://youtu.be/u3ktiewcLpo?t=102

• Infected AI will be revamped to make them more intelligent and better at planning and flanking maneuvers .
  
• Last minute QOL changes...
  
• Modding
  
• Coop
  

The Campaign will be tackled in 2024 for the entire year.

[h3]Cepheus Protocol Dev Update 15[/h3]
https://youtu.be/GV3YOssGEfs

[h3]Cepheus Protocol Dev Update 14[/h3]
https://youtu.be/LOdVk1yiuak


To opt into experimental install "Cepheus Protocol Experimental" in your steam library.
It is no longer a beta opt in but an entirely new game granted when you purchase the base game.

As we work to wrap up 1.2 in the coming weeks our goals will be working out bug and balance issues introduced with this patch. The next goal for 1.2 will be to add more "Ambient" civilians in the form of cars/people that litter/populate the cities regardless of their faction and then we will conclude with modernizing the "look" of the ROE tab. Then its the Police Faction and Anarchist time in 1.3 We we will spend 1-2 months (developing 1.3 on experimental) on completely redoing the Factions and deprecating the "Zone" capture circles they use in the experimental "Factions" opt in. The current capture truck method wil be standardized and their AI will know how to properly interact and seek them out

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

• Fixed Police and Anarchist Faction showing up improperly in the diplomacy tab when they are disabled
  
• Destroyed Factions section now properly appears at the bottom
  
• ApplyFireDamage Crash should be fixed for real now
  

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

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

• 
  

[/expand]
[h3]New Versioning Number system[/h3]
[expand]
We are changing the way we do version numbers to simplify them going into the future. The one will represent a "release" version and the octet following it will the title update or major patch version we are on.
1.2.1
1 = Release version
2 = Title Update (Major Update)
1 = Minior Fix/bug fixes etc
[/expand]
[h3]Letter from the Producer[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/3186869726433966739
[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
Trello and the old picture Roadmap system will be removed going into the future.
https://www.notion.so/cepheusprotocol/Cepheus-Protocol-31f1b25ce00148d6844825f4a0c0bc08

[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
[expand]
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]

[h3]Merch Store [/h3]
The Halcyon Winds Store is now live to support development and profits go towards expanding the team. This is in response to several requests I've gotten quite a few times about those that don't want to do patreon but want to support via merch.(Posters, Jackets etc) Check it out we'll add more over the next few weeks-months! :WinterSmile: Link here
[expand]

[/expand]

[h3]Cepheus Protocol Dev Update 15[/h3]
https://youtu.be/GV3YOssGEfs

[h3]Cepheus Protocol Dev Update 14[/h3]
https://youtu.be/LOdVk1yiuak


To opt into experimental install "Cepheus Protocol Experimental" in your steam library.
It is no longer a beta opt in but an entirely new game granted when you purchase the base game.

As we work to wrap up 1.2 in the coming weeks our goals will be working out bug and balance issues introduced with this patch. The next goal for 1.2 will be to add more "Ambient" civilians in the form of cars/people that litter/populate the cities regardless of their faction and then we will conclude with modernizing the "look" of the ROE tab. Then its the Police Faction and Anarchist time in 1.3 We we will spend 1-2 months (developing 1.3 on experimental) on completely redoing the Factions and deprecating the "Zone" capture circles they use in the experimental "Factions" opt in. The current capture truck method wil be standardized and their AI will know how to properly interact and seek them out

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

• New materials for Civilan wall placeholders.
  
• Quick fix to Diplomacy widget sometimes having 'text wrap' issues
  
• Updated wall 'box collision' component to no longer block WorldDynamic (which caused it to block grenades)
  
• Started on a Faction 'Relationship Meter' for the Diplomacy widget. Changes color depending on status. Changes 'fill amount' based on reputation in the zone of the faction in question
  
• Added an Are you Sure popup for declaring war on a faction
  
• Fixed an issue w/ 'Declare War' on dynamic civvie factions not properly marking the text as 'hostile'
  
• Another crash fix to stop the "Fire" Crash
  
• Quick fix to landscape tree 'tilt' logic from Juggernauts causing tree 'offset' or disappearance
  
• Fixed non-tree landscaping objects having 'AllowTilt' on (this allowed Juggernauts to 'push away' these things as if they were trees)
  
• Fixed the 'Arena' building in Grid 6 not being clickable (set it to use Simple as Complex collision, and it's clickable now)
  
• Slight scaling/appearance adjustments to Diplo widgets
  
• Increased the brightness of the moon during nighttime to make it easier to see
  
• Set the new starting time for the game to 6 AM for new play session
  removed options that aren't ready yet
  
  

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

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

• 
  

[/expand]
[h3]New Versioning Number system[/h3]
[expand]
We are changing the way we do version numbers to simplify them going into the future. The one will represent a "release" version and the octet following it will the title update or major patch version we are on.
1.2.1
1 = Release version
2 = Title Update (Major Update)
1 = Minior Fix/bug fixes etc
[/expand]
[h3]Letter from the Producer[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/3186869726433966739
[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
Trello and the old picture Roadmap system will be removed going into the future.
https://www.notion.so/cepheusprotocol/Cepheus-Protocol-31f1b25ce00148d6844825f4a0c0bc08

[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
[expand]
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]

[h3]Merch Store [/h3]
The Halcyon Winds Store is now live to support development and profits go towards expanding the team. This is in response to several requests I've gotten quite a few times about those that don't want to do patreon but want to support via merch.(Posters, Jackets etc) Check it out we'll add more over the next few weeks-months! :WinterSmile: Link here
[expand]

[/expand]

[h3]Cepheus Protocol Dev Update 15[/h3]
https://youtu.be/GV3YOssGEfs

[h3]Cepheus Protocol Dev Update 14[/h3]
https://youtu.be/LOdVk1yiuak


To opt into experimental install "Cepheus Protocol Experimental" in your steam library.
It is no longer a beta opt in but an entirely new game granted when you purchase the base game.

As we work to wrap up 1.2 in the coming weeks our goals will be working out bug and balance issues introduced with this patch. The next goal for 1.2 will be to add more "Ambient" civilians in the form of cars/people that litter/populate the cities regardless of their faction and then we will conclude with modernizing the "look" of the ROE tab. Then its the Police Faction and Anarchist time in 1.3 We we will spend 1-2 months (developing 1.3 on experimental) on completely redoing the Factions and deprecating the "Zone" capture circles they use in the experimental "Factions" opt in. The current capture truck method wil be standardized and their AI will know how to properly interact and seek them out

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

• Crash fixes for Move Previews causing instability in Unreal Engine 5.1
  
• Crash fixes for Skeletal Mesh streaming being unstable in 5.1 (Was disabled temporarily) Odds are you will notice slightly increased VRAM/RAM usage
  
• Crash Fixes to units catching on Fire and causing a crash after they are deleted/garbage collected
  
• Added faction check for creating 'base under attack notification' when a Structure takes damage. Should stop civvie gates from spamming 'base under attack' to the player when hit by infected
  
• Civvies will now start spawning sooner near civvie buildings
  
• Added negative reputation event for cleansing civvies
  
• Added positive reputation event for evacuating civvies
  
• Fixed an issue with civilian walls (that aren't gates) being invisible to the player
  
• Started dividing the ROE widget's diplomacy logic into a separate Diplomacy widget
  
• Added some fixes to widget sizes at the top left to stop 'scaling/jittering' buttons
  
• Updated the Diplomacy widget button to use some of our newer art assets
  
• Set up the Diplomacy widget to have a 'DestroyedFactions' section so they dont clutter the section with "Active" Factions
  
• Updated some logic (including save/load) to mark Civvie factions as 'destroyed' if their main building gets destroyed
  
• Updated civvie faction wall construction to cease if their main building gets destroyed
  
• Updated Display Name generation for civvie faction archetypes to try to minimize the number of duplicate faction names
  

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

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

• 
  

[/expand]
[h3]New Versioning Number system[/h3]
[expand]
We are changing the way we do version numbers to simplify them going into the future. The one will represent a "release" version and the octet following it will the title update or major patch version we are on.
1.2.1
1 = Release version
2 = Title Update (Major Update)
1 = Minior Fix/bug fixes etc
[/expand]
[h3]Letter from the Producer[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/3186869726433966739
[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
Trello and the old picture Roadmap system will be removed going into the future.
https://www.notion.so/cepheusprotocol/Cepheus-Protocol-31f1b25ce00148d6844825f4a0c0bc08

[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
[expand]
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]

[h3]Merch Store [/h3]
The Halcyon Winds Store is now live to support development and profits go towards expanding the team. This is in response to several requests I've gotten quite a few times about those that don't want to do patreon but want to support via merch.(Posters, Jackets etc) Check it out we'll add more over the next few weeks-months! :WinterSmile: Link here
[expand]

[/expand]

[h3]Cepheus Protocol Dev Update 15[/h3]
https://youtu.be/GV3YOssGEfs

[h3]Cepheus Protocol Dev Update 14[/h3]
https://youtu.be/LOdVk1yiuak


To opt into experimental install "Cepheus Protocol Experimental" in your steam library.
It is no longer a beta opt in but an entirely new game granted when you purchase the base game.

As we work to wrap up 1.2 in the coming weeks our goals will be working out bug and balance issues introduced with this patch. The next goal for 1.2 will be to add more "Ambient" civilians in the form of cars/people that litter/populate the cities regardless of their faction and then we will conclude with modernizing the "look" of the ROE tab. Then its the Police Faction and Anarchist time in 1.3 We we will spend 1-2 months (developing 1.3 on experimental) on completely redoing the Factions and deprecating the "Zone" capture circles they use in the experimental "Factions" opt in. The current capture truck method wil be standardized and their AI will know how to properly interact and seek them out

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

• Enabled FOW-hiding for civilian faction main tents
  
• Adjusted civilian faction main tents to spawn 2uu higher than normal to make it easier for perception components to see them
  
• Updated logic to not penalize the player's bank account if the player kills civilians that are members of an evil civilian faction (cannibals, etc.)
  
• Additionally, no rep loss will occur if killing evil civilians
  
• Boosted squad size for civvies to 10 (from 8)
  
• Civilians will erect their compound walls quicker
  
• Fixed a loading issue with walls to resolve civvie gates 'breaking' and not letting civvies through (may not fix saves from previous patch)
  
• Fixed some registration issues with Civilian gates to prevent targeting issues when loading saves (may not fix saves from previous patch)
  
• -Fixed a few other issues with Civilian gates not being considerd 'powered,' causing them to break navigation when loaded
  
• Fixed some targeting issues that allowed player units who cannot damage Civilian gates from being able to target said gates
  
• Fixed a landscaping issue with civilian walls - landscaping box wasn't being 'saved' if it was pertinent, now it does get saved. This may not fix old saves
  
• Fixed some issues with 'repair previews' not appearing correctly for player walls and civilian gates
  
• Updated Civilian squad size to max out at 8 on Day 1, up to 16 at Day 3
  
• Added 'MoveAwayFromTargetBehaviorChance' and 'MoveTowardsUnseenTargetInCombatBehaviorChance' to AIController_Civilian for adjusting how likely civvies are to advance (when they can no longer see their target) or retreat (when they can), checked roughly every 1.5 seconds. These values were previously hardcoded.
  
• Adjusted the 'MoveAwayTargetBehaviorChance' to be 5% (from 60%) so civilian gunners don't fidget around quite as much in combat
  
• Set up logic to make sure Camp Walls for civvie camps aren't targetable by the player (which caused a weird 'This unit belongs to Environment' popup if right-clicked)
  
• Fixed an issue with civvie gates sometimes not opening for their own civvies
  
• Quick fix to disable 'no rep loss for killing ASSAULT order civvies regardless of faction', so you will still lose rep if killing regular civvies who have banded against you
  
• Crash fixes for https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1092175849664544808/1092178481422553108
  
• Crash fixes for https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1091976144355606530/1091976144355606530
  
• Crash fixes for https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1091838194879844452/1091838194879844452
  
• Crash fixes for https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1091621463913680978/1091621463913680978
  
• Crash fixes for https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1091555545296679033/1091555545296679033
  
• Crash fixes for https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1091390481117749348/1091390481117749348
  
• increased chances of civilian factions coming out sooner
  

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

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

• 
  

[/expand]
[h3]New Versioning Number system[/h3]
[expand]
We are changing the way we do version numbers to simplify them going into the future. The one will represent a "release" version and the octet following it will the title update or major patch version we are on.
1.2.1
1 = Release version
2 = Title Update (Major Update)
1 = Minior Fix/bug fixes etc
[/expand]
[h3]Letter from the Producer[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/3186869726433966739
[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
Trello and the old picture Roadmap system will be removed going into the future.
https://www.notion.so/cepheusprotocol/Cepheus-Protocol-31f1b25ce00148d6844825f4a0c0bc08

[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
[expand]
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]

[h3]Merch Store [/h3]
The Halcyon Winds Store is now live to support development and profits go towards expanding the team. This is in response to several requests I've gotten quite a few times about those that don't want to do patreon but want to support via merch.(Posters, Jackets etc) Check it out we'll add more over the next few weeks-months! :WinterSmile: Link here
[expand]

[/expand]