KickStarter Cyber Knights: Flashpoint - the latest tactical RPG from Trese Brothers - now available on Early Access

[Parsimonious cook]

IMO the main issue with the AI that the devs need to contend with is what is generally refered to as "propagation of alert status" among the NPCs (or rather guards in particular, since vast majority of NPCs you encounter on missions are guards). A few variants were tried in the earlier builds, originaly it was basically "if one guard becomes alert, other guards become alert too," this was realistic (it is fair to assume they would all carry radios), but players also complained that it made the stealth way too hard (I tended to agree and IIRC I gave feedback to that effect too for the first playable build that the KS backers received back in the day), so the devs started to make the propagation of alert status more gradual in the subsequent builds and it is not easy to get it right - the points mentioned by Zanzoken have a lot to do with this.

For starters, it didn't respond urgently enough to the player characters (PCs) initially breaking stealth. When the body of the first dead enemy was spotted, neither of the enemies in the nearby area reacted. The AI called in a reinforcement but he showed up in "unaware" mode, which makes no sense considering he is supposed to be responding to an identified threat.

I would say this is not universal occurance, as I have seen guards who discover bodies make appropriate call outs ("man down" and such) and switch to the "hunting" state. I can imagine that the reinforcements spawning in response to this incident indeed might spawn in "unaware" mode, which means that the alert propagation probably isnt working as well as it should be yet.

... but then when it's the enemy's turn he simply stands there and returns fire, leaving himself exposed and allowing the PC to easily kill him on the next turn. You'd think the enemy would at least have the sense to take cover, and possibly apply a heal since he is almost dead.

Again, the behaviour varies. I have seen guards take cover and try to flank, though I am sure I have also seen some of them stand in the open while shooting. Its certainly not optimal, but I personaly dont see it as a huge issue (if it was the norm it would be different matter of course). What I found more interesting is that I have seen guards basically disengage on a few occassions (the AI engaged in a firefight moved to cover and then broke LoS with my characters) - I wonder if that was a bug or intended behaviour (ie the guard not being willing to take a bullet in that given situation).

Anyway, guards do not use items nor throw grenades in this build, though that is probably going to change. In any case I am personally not a fan of mooks healing themselves in RPGs, as it makes fights too grindy. YMMW of course.

...and yet the enemies are again spawned in completely unaware, patrolling lackadaisically as if they don't know that the PCs are on site. And yet this RT should know exactly where the PCs are -- they just landed on a helipad 20 feet away from where the PCs were sitting out in the open, AND there is still one guard alive from the site security who could be telling the RT where gunfire was heard and his teammates were shot. Even if you put that aside, at a minimum the RT should be aggressively searching the area and trying to find and engage the PCs before they escape.

I agree with this, the dialogue makes it look like the response team is there specifically to look for intruders (you later find out that they were tipped off about your presence). I think it might be an issue with the propagation of alert status I already mentioned, though I can imagine that perhaps the devs didnt want to ramp up the difficulty of that encounter too much (after all this particular situation happens in the tutorial). I will ask around on Trese Bros discord when I have time, I am pretty sure people have been bringing up this particular thing a lot.

 

[Tyranicon]

Are there any mechanics that allow the player to disrupt enemy comms or cyberware? If there is, it would be an easy way to handwave stupid AI, and also offer an additional progression stick.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

You actually fuck with enemy security systems as a baseline - the reason why you acumulate heat every turn even if you are not spotted is that the enemy is tracing your "Quantum interference." Its not explained very well as far as I know, but I take it to mean that you somehow disrupt the comms/cyberware/security systems in general in order to be even present on the map (after all I would imagine that there would be all kinds of thermal and other sensors in the setting, that would otherwise make infiltrating most places impossible to being with).

Stealth oriented classes also have talents/skills that allow you to lure enemies in specific locations or apply debufs of various kinds (which would probably be done by hacking enemy cyberware). Plus you can buy advantages before missions that allow you to decrease the alert status and such - so yeah, I think there are ways to explain the bad AI behaviour away in such terms.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3746490810830246219

Update #6: Week Prime Wrap
Added 2 Talents and 1 item to deal with dead bodies, new game tips, improved levels, smoothed out camera transitions

Update #6 rounds out a very busy first week for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint with one more major patch fixing bugs before we dive into adding missions. Update #7 will add the first new mission content and we are working to keep the delay on the next mission after that as short as possible.

We've got new exciting Talents and items to deal with corpses in Update #6, a new rolling Game Tips list in the loading screens, lots of improvements to the game camera, fixing level issues, tweaking Sniper Rifles to increase their optimal range band and more. Let's dig in!

The other major item on our list this week is to post our
Public Roadmap for Early Access
. We just have to finish making the beautiful info graphic and we'll get it up so everyone can see the crazy plans we have for Early Access expansion. We've got some stuff coming, chowda!

If you're enjoying the game or pace of updates, please share it with a friend and consider leaving a review!

Pesky Bodies and Body Timers
It is hard to be stealthy if you're leaving a trail of bodies behind and the Security AI is always sending someone to look for Upso, who hasn't been seen in a while. While the ability to pick up and move dead bodies is coming (it will be on the public roadmap), Update #6 adds 2 Talents that can help reduce your exposure due to missing guards and rounds out a powerful item which can give that ability to non-Vanguard and non-Hacker characters.

The Vanguard's new Bodybag Talent will allow you to hide a body with an illusory projection. This does not cancel the Body Timer, so the Sec AI is still eventually going to send someone to look for the missing agent. However, the body will not be discovered - so they're going to be hunting around that area for a while.

On the other hand, you've got the Hacker's Faked Vitals Talent which cancels the Body Timer. Therefore, the Sec AI will never send someone to look for the missing agent
but
if someone does happen across the body, it will be discovered normally.

Finally, the upgraded Bio-Recycler item both cancels the Body Timer and dissolves the body so it cannot be found by an agent passing through the area.

Game Tips
The loading screen is now nicely decorated with a helpful list of game tips that point out useful knowledge and complexities of the system. We hope you find it helpful reading while loading flashes by.

If you've got tips you think should be included, please share them. We've got a great list going from a Discord forum thread and will be adding more as we go.

Camera Smoothing
With this update we've made a lot of small but nice changes to how the camera positions, cuts and rotates at the start of levels or when reloading a level. It isn't always perfect yet but there are a lot less mis-cuts and rotations now as we fade from black to the action.

Level Smoothing
We've fixed a ton of little issues with levels like the 60,000 HP "Target Dummy" who was spawning in the back corner of Loophole Heist level 1, and how the blue trigger zones forced you to stop moving awkwardly in Cube Run level 2. We've improved some of the patrol and reinforcement schemes in Haven Smokeout, so if you're replaying levels, don't get too complacent!

Bugs Go Smash!
Thank you
for your F10s. Every one is helpful and we are able to rapidly reproduce and fix bugs based on the details your sending in. We've fixed too many minor bugs here to list and we're excited to keep polishing until your forced to F10 about only game balance instead of bugs

v1.0.21 - 10/24/2023
- Hacker's Faked Vitals Talent is now correctly described and functioning - cancel dead body timers
- Vanguard's Chameleon Talent replaced with correct Bodybag Talent - completely hide a body from detection
- Item Bio-Recycler now permanently dissolves a body and cancels its Body Timer
- Widened optimal range for Sniper Rifles by 2m (better accuracy when too close)
- Game tips added to the loading screens
- Improved aspects of enemy patrol and defenses in Haven Smokeout job
- Added and upgraded 20 Talent icons to new style
- Improved enemy reinforcements plan in Haven Smokeout
- Fixed issue with camera getting stuck out of bounds in Loophole Heist Level 1
- Fixed issue with turn timeline getting out of order during a mission
- Fixed issues with enemies not taking their turns when turn timeline is out of order
- Improved level reload and level start camera behavior to be more consistent / less jumpy
- Improved camera starting position in Cube Run and Loophole
- Improved objective "blue zones" so that they don't stop your movement unless neccessary
- Added missing faction flags for Arrowhead Security, Indie faction and KEMCO Salvage
- Fixed bug in new game where list of backstories all showed the same short description
- Fixed odd and broken spawn in the far corner of Loophole Heist level 1
- Fixed issue with Safehouse sometimes opening with UI not visible
- Fixed issue with Cube Run L2 sometimes starting with just a black screen
- Fixed issues with Loot Manifest appearing in wrong places and sticking around after mission victory

 

[oasis789]

The "quantum interference" mechanic is straight out of Invisible Inc. I didn't really like it then either, it felt a lot like the turn limits in XCOM2, but I can see why the game needs to have some kind of time pressure, otherwise the player can just cheese their way through with all the tools at their disposal in a way that is probably unfun unless you have extreme patience.

 

[Zanzoken]

I don't think the game works nearly as well if you don't put time constraints on the missions. Without it you undermine the theme, and also create a situation where the optimal strategy is to slowly inch your way through the level, which makes for easy and boring gameplay.

Time constraints force the player to be more aggressive and take risks. In turn that means things will often go wrong, so you'll have to quickly adapt (and get a little lucky) to meet your objective and make it out in one piece. Hopefully on occasion shit gets so fubar that you have no choice but to abort and fail the mission, lest the whole party get wiped. To me all of this is fun and exciting.

Also love the new "Bodybag" ability they released in the latest update. I was just thinking about something like that... instead of moving bodies around, you put some kind of digital camouflage over them so they can't be seen. I was thinking of it more as an item than an ability, but it works either way. The ability to create random tech stuff like that is part of what makes sci-fi cool.

It's unfortunate the game's sales seem to be off to a bit of a slow start. I was planning to wait until EA was over to buy, but I'll probably go ahead and snag a copy to support the devs. I think the Trese Bros are firmly on the side of incline and won't steer us wrong.

 

[Nm6k]

If I recall correctly Star Traders: Frontiers also didn't do well on initial EA release

 

[agris]

Their games seem like the slow burn type

 

[cyborgboy95]

Announcing our roadmap! Planned content & features to come.
Knights, it's been an incredible first week. We're thrilled so many of you are telling us Cyber Knights is exactly what you've been looking for, or even better, more than you'd hoped to find in a game like this. We know we have plenty to improve, but by being here during Early Access you're helping guide exactly what and how.

Beyond improvements to existing systems, we have so much already in the works and planned out to make Cyber Knights: Flashpoint the game we intend it to be. Today we're sharing our Early Access Roadmap.

Content Expansions
A new heist is already being added to the next update as I write this, with another hot on its heels. Our planned scope for Cyber Knights' story content is large, as is all of the content that adds to their variety and your options as a player. Weapons, enemy types, cosmetics, contacts, cybernetics, starting characters / backstories... we've got more of all of it coming at a steady pace.

Many of the most exciting expansions—e.g. new character classes like the Gunslinger and Drone Pilot—will be milestone updates we'll share details about as we add them. Because you can multiclass your characters, every new class added greatly expands the possibilities for your squad builds and talent combos. Classes that come with companion units like the Drone Pilot will have their own additional feature-sets and interactions with existing systems like the safehouse and equipment / cybernetics built out to support them.

Features and Systems

Your feedback has already helped to prioritize our next big feature additions. Procedurally generated missions are coming soon, along with a big set of new capabilities for Hackers and several expansions to the tutorial. We know many of you are finding Matrix hacking hard to figure out right now, and that's entirely on us. We're rapidly adding more hovertips across the game and a Matrix tutorial is coming soon, but in the meantime the Cyber Knights wiki[cyberknightswiki.tresebrothers.com] is a helpful resource.

Post Early Access

We stick with our games long after launch. Once Early Access is complete and the full launch has lifted off, we'll take stock and consider how to expand next. We're able to punch above our weight as an indie studio by staying smart about scope and being careful to not overcommit; many player ideas that come up during EA we'll be able to integrate along the way, but some we'll need to say no or not right now to. The post launch roadmap will give us a chance to revisit these.

And with the game fully launched and the original scope complete, that's when we'll be able to add mod support, port the game to iOS and Android, and (pending player interest and each platform's full approval) potentially port to consoles as well.

We will keep you in the loop!
We will update the Roadmap graphic regularly to show progress as EA goes on. This Roadmap is a full list of our commitments -- we will complete all of them. Additions are possible based on player feedback; any changes in timing we'll communicate clearly. If you look back through our Steam news post history, you'll see a monthly update on development every month since the Kickstarter completed in 2020! We're here, in Steam forums and our Discord,[discord.gg] and we're hyped to be building this game with you.

See you on the streets, Knights. The New Boston Zone won't know what hit it.

 

[oasis789]

proc-gen missions next month is huge. there just aren't enough handcrafted ones right now

 

[Zanzoken]

I went ahead and bought the game, and made my first party based on the show "Vikings" which I recently finished watching.

Spoiler

For those who haven't seen it, here are reference images of the characters from the show.

Spoiler

Ragnar

Lagertha

Torstein

Floki

Bjorn

Rollo

The game's character creator is pretty decent and I'm happy with how they turned out. In terms of party creation, you can set the character names and appearances to whatever you want. However their backgrounds, classes, and skills are presets. You have a few options to pick from for the Cyber Knight character, but the companions are locked. Presumably that will change once more classes and stuff are added.

I also played the tutorial mission, which is quite short but allows you to start to get a feel for the game. I will say the UI / UX doesn't flow naturally and I found myself kind of muddling through it, but I'm sure I will get used to it over time.

Looking forward to getting started with this one! I will post more impressions as I have time to play.

 

[Zanzoken]

So I ended up playing the first mission tonight (yay insomnia) and had a good time with it.

I was able to sneak completely past the first set of guards. I used a Lure on the stationary guard instead of chopping him like in the video, and was able to sneak around because he decided to go check inside the lasered off area. I don't think there is a surefire way to completely stealth that encounter, so I just got lucky.

The second part of the mission was a bit more chaotic. I thought I was going to be able to sneak through the middle between the containers, but got spotted by the guard coming around back of the helipad (the first one he shoots in the vid). I figured stealth was out the window at that point and opened up. Torstein managed to kill the guard who spotted us with a pistol (suppressed) and also two more guards went down to Bjorn's assault rifle, which has a full auto setting that shoots in a cone and can hit multiple enemies.

I assumed hearing unsuppressed gunfire would immediately throw the remaining two enemies into action and possibly summon more, but instead the AI just went into "suspicious" mode and patrolled a bit more aggressively. With the enemies between me and the objective now dead, I was able to easily maneuver around and win. Overall the AI had about three turns to respond after the gunshots, but it just kinda froze, and the two remaining guards were stuck in the middle of the level doing nothing.

Obviously this is early in EA and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but the AI really needs some more tuning. I know there were issues with it being too aggressive in earlier builds, but it's escalating way too slowly now. Events like getting one of your characters spotted or letting off unsuppressed gunfire should be an "all hands on deck" situation for the AI to throw everything it has at you.

Regardless, the game is fun and shows a ton of promise, and I'm confident the devs will get these things right eventually.

 

[agris]

Zanzoken fwiw, I brought your previous concerns re: AI and @Parsimonious cook’s response to them to @TreseBrothers’s attention in the steam forums and got some good feedback.

1. AI is very much EA, they know it needs work and current state is what they consider minimum acceptable for EA release; it will be improved

2. First mission (not tutorial?) AI is purposefully fed lead paint chips. They made it less observant and more forgiving on purpose. I don’t particularly like that, but it will be interesting to hear your opinion as you progress. Apparently the “Cube” mission is a nice challenge.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Update #7: Monster

Update #7 is a beast! It was intended to include the next storyline and mission, but as it's change log, feature additions and bug fixes started to run off the edge of the table and onto the floor, we decided we better get it out to the community rather than wait one more day. Update #8 will be hot on its heels with new mission content, but its better to separate these two.

There is way too much to highlight everything in the Steam update text (character limits!), so we will aim to hit the high points and let you pursue the change log if you want to know the sheer volume of work that went into this one.

If you're wondering what's up next or what major updates are in the works, we've just posted our public and ambitious roadmap for Early Access -
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3747617344190975453

If you're enjoying the continuous updates, improvements and QoL fixes based directly on your F10s, please tell a friend and leave a review!

Matrix Zoom, ESC, More
The Matrix has received a ton of good improvements based on things you have specifically asked for. Now, you can zoom in and out with the same keybinding you use to zoom the main mission map. You can also open the game ESC menu while hacking with the ESC or B key (defaults). If you get transported by a Blackhole IC we now pop up a warning.

We fixed a bug that was making the Haven Smokeout host a bit broken. We've adjusted the level bulid in Cube Run to fix bugs with the Matrix host there but also to correctly connect more security devices to the host's SCU and even connect the Blue Key door to the RCU. So, another path through the lab just opened if that pesky Blue Key is proving hard to find.

Soldier's Blast Radius
The Soldier's Blast Radius ability has been expanded to have upgrades now, allowing them to spend more points on becoming a grenade and demolitions expert. These bonuses are applied to any type of Grenade from Shock Mines to Concussion or H.E. Grenades. The offerings include increasing throwing distance, pumping up grenade damage or increasing the duration of debuffing grenades. So, if your Soldiers are packing boom then this one's for you!

Market Filters
The market has received the needed filters for subtype - allowing you to drill into only shotguns, or only weapon mods for blades, or only healing items, etc. In addition, in any case where we automatically apply a filter you can now clearly see what filters have been added to the screen. This is most helpful for context-driven shopping, where you've picked a merc, their Blade, clicked to Attach a Blade Grip and then from that screen click the Market icon - you end up shopping for Weapon Mods with the Blade Grip filter applied automatically for you.

Improved Enemies
With over 20 types of factions in the the game and the ability for enemies to carry any type of weapon, armor and take Talents with full charges and cooldown rules ... we're excited just how far we can take the enemy variety in Cyber Knights: Flashpoint. We're really just getting started on this one, so its nice to get the Chopshop enemies upgraded to do their thing -- now with weaker armor but the ability to drop a nano-shielding cloud that fully soaks up to 2 attacks, these shotgun wielders are dangerous on a rush when buffed. Take them out quickly or before they become alerted if you can.

New Game Rename
You can now fully rename your characters from the New Game > Customize > Appearance screen. For your Knight and Face, you can change first, last and code names while the rest of the characters can adjust their first and last only and still need to earn codenames.

Mission Deploy Polish
If you were trying to deploy, often the mission map would overlap the button and cause click issues. The button now wins all fights If no mercs could go along on a mission, we've fixed the formatting issue there. And finally, we've upgraded the speed and snappiness of that UI to prevent it from lagging a little as it waited for the character's 3D model.

v1.0.23 - 10/26/2023
- Added Zoom In / Zoom Out on Matrix
- Open ESC menu from within Matrix
- Added warning confirmation for Hacker when teleported by a Blackhole IC
- Expanded Soldier Blast Radius ability with its upgrades to further focus on grenade damage, range and debuffs
- Improved HUD objective listing to always show the full text
- Added subtype filters to Market screen for weapon types, mod types, armor types, item types
- Subtype filters automatically selected when going from Equip Weapon Mod > Market
- Fully rename all of your characters in New Game now from Merc Detail > Appearance tab
- Improved Chopshop monster talent, now Chop Shield blocks 2 attacks, improved their decision tree, added description
- Added icons to Appearance tab for all hair types
- More hotkeys listing added to the in-game ESC menu including LMB (mouse) or Right Stick Click (controller) defaults to set move destination
- Fixed Matrix Host issues in Cube Run level 2, SCU now have devices connected and RCU can open Blue Door to escape level
- Fixed issue with Deploy button overlapping with mission node map
- Fixed issue with Matrix Host on Haven Smokeout level
- Fixed issues with some combat drugs causing lock up
- Fixed issue with using multiple items of the same type
- Fixed wrapping Power Level value in Contacts screen
- Fixed issue allowing for too many items to be equipped, odd behaviors while buying new items
- Improved UI responsiveness of mission deploy screen to avoid any lag when changing characters
- Improved mission deploy screen if no mercs are available

 

[Zanzoken]

I finished the first story mission and I have to say, I am really loving this game so far. The core game loop is very solid and the way the missions start in stealth and then eventually devolve into a gunfight is something I have always wanted to experience in a TRPG.

I will say, the AI issues that I've noted were still present to some degree, but it was mitigated somewhat that there were a lot more enemies and environment obstacles to contend with in this mission. I was on the edge of my seat as trying to maintain the surprise advantage for as long as possible, until deciding (and basically having no choice) to pop off and go in guns blazing.

If I could levy a bit more constructive criticism, I would start with the character system.

Note: none of these are actually spoilers, just screenshots to illustrate my points. I like to spoiler tag them so you don't have to scroll as much.

Spoiler

Aside from your class (which we'll get to in a minute) the parts boxed off in red are essentially the extent of your character sheet. You have HP and 4 attributes that -- as you can see from bonuses next to each one -- don't really do a whole lot. Modifying 2% here or 4% there doesn't make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, and leads to a feeling of sameness across characters. This is really noticeable in combat, as all characters are essentially able to use all weapons with more or less the same effectiveness. It just feels wrong not to have a character system with more depth that affects stuff like aim accuracy, melee damage, speed, HP, AP, etc and ultimately has a much bigger impact on how each character plays.

Next, the class system.

Spoiler

This is the talent tree, which is unique to each class. Essentially you have the big nodes, which are talents, connected by smaller nodes that grant attribute increases. The talent nodes also have upgrade options that you can buy so that your abilities get more powerful, have wider AoE, faster cooldowns, etc.

The main issue I have here is not so much with the system itself (although I'd prefer if it was classless so we could experiment with more builds). I just don't particularly like that your characters already come with the first 3 talent nodes unlocked, especially if the "talent limit" is capped at 5 talents (maybe it increases as you level up?) It kind of feels like you're being dropped into the mid-game with a party that already has a few level-ups on it, limiting your growth potential. Maybe I will be proven wrong on this as I progress in the game, but right now I just don't feel that same excitement about leveling up / character progression that I normally would.

The last thing that stood out to me are some UI issues, which admittedly are subjective. Going back to this first screenshot.

Spoiler

Having the character's inventory persistently shown on the right third of the screen is kind of a bad UI choice, because you just don't need it there all the time. Having an "Inventory" button as an option with the other tabs at the top would be a much cleaner solution, and frees up that entire righthand section of the screen.

You'll notice the "Main Info" tab is very busy, especially compared to the "Talents" tab which has almost nothing.

Spoiler

I think it makes sense to move some of the stuff from "Main Info" over here, probably the "Class training" and "Cyber surgery" fields at a minimum. Again just decluttering and making better use of space.

Speaking of cyberware, this is what the UI for implants looks like.

Spoiler

I know from looking at the talent tree that there are cyberware slots that correspond to parts of the body (i.e. head, brain, arm, etc) so rather than a simple list it makes more sense to have a paper doll here that shows what implants are on each part of the body. You probably know what I mean, but here's an example from Shadowrun.

Spoiler

Also to piggyback off of the point above, several of your teammates come with cyberware preinstalled, which again makes them feel more like intermediate than low-level characters. I understand the Cyber Knight has to have this for story reasons, but I'd rather it be something you unlock for the others because getting cyberware installed on a character is always a cool achievement.

The last thing I will mention is the Traits.

Spoiler

Under this heading we have all kinds of different data points. Some of them are attribute modifiers, some of them have to do with NPC interaction, some come from quests, and some are just basic backstory for your character. It's a bit hard to parse with it all just blobbed together here in text, so it would help if they were grouped by type. And it would be a lot cleaner if each trait was an icon with a tooltip you could mouse over, instead of being fully written out.

Okay, sorry for the massive wall of text lol. I guess I should get on Steam or Discord and show this to the devs, though I don't really use those platforms much and prefer the Codex.

Criticisms aside I want to reiterate how much I like the game and see the potential in it! To anyone on the fence I'd say go ahead and pick it up... it's very playable in current state and is only going to get better from here as the devs furiously crank out patches.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Update #8: New Story & Mission "Salvage Breakout"

Update #8 brings the first of many new missions to the game. Salvage Breakout is a multi-stage mission but we won't share much more than that to avoid spoilers. We've also fixed some Talent displays, improved the Accuracy breakdown in the top right, and rebalanced the Attribute spread for Knight backstories. Plus a pile of minor bugs and typos!

More missions are coming, and coming soon. And we will be delivering the proc-gen mission system in November per our new roadmap.

If you're enjoying the pace of updates and improvements, please remember to leave a review and share the game with a friend.

First New Mission!
We're very excited to roll out the first new mission after the Early Access launch. Salvage Breakout is another team-driven mission and helps fill in the stories and history of your mercs. Our unique proc-gen story engine and the Casting Director are starting to do their work here, and you'll find that this story can attach to different characters based on their history and may have different characters - based on their history and personal relationships - jumping in to make their opinions known about team business.

It is very excited to see this start - and as more and more missions and stories come online, we can't wait to see what the Casting Director help you create.

High Ground Bonuses
The rules for Accuracy bonuses on high ground are now better displayed in the top right corner. If you're 2m above your target you gain +10% Accuracy and 4m above the target gains 15% Accuracy. Use these to your advantages when you can - your enemies certainly are!

Blast Radius Display
The Blast Radius display for Soldiers was missing some text - this is now fixed along with clarification for rules that these bonuses apply to any thrown object like H.E. Grenades, Concussion Grenades and Shock Mines as well. The extra range can help you get even more effective bounces and the extra AOE blast of your customized grenades can get even bigger enemy clust wipeouts.

Attribute Spread
There were some incorrect numbers floating around in the spread of Attributes for the Knight's new game backstories. We've resolved those -- all backstories generate +10 Attribute points and a small themey buff.

v1.0.25 - 10/28/2023
- Added new storyline "Salvage Breakout" with new 2 part mission
- Added chance to recruit new hacker character
- Improved Accuracy % of all Sniper Rifles
- Improved Height Bonus label in Accuracy Breakdown (+10% for 2m+ / +15% for 4m+)
- Fixed text and bonus display in Soldier's "Blast Radius" passive
- New "Digital Rush 1" Trait for Dade in new games
- Improved Attribute spread for Knight starting backstories, fixed imbalances (9 vs 10 pts)

 

[Zanzoken]

I played through a few more missions, including the one released in the newest update. Found them to be kind of a mixed bag tbh. There was one I really liked and felt like nailed everything perfectly (Haven Smokeout). It has the right blend of stealth and combat, provides a good tactical challenge, and doesn't overstay its welcome. The others were either (a) too easy or (b) huge multiple-map endeavors that turned into a slog.

I believe there are still a couple missions I haven't played yet, but I am going to take a break from the game for now. The devs are supposed to be coming out with a procedurally generated mission system next month, so I'm curious to see how that goes. I know proc-gen is not a favorite on the Codex but assuming it can be done well, it's what I would prefer for a game like this. I don't want this to have a linear story and Bioware companions like we got in the Harebrained Shadowrun games.

A few other random notes.

• You can respec your characters as many times as you want for free from the Talent menu. Not sure if this is just an EA thing or a long-term feature but it helps make the characters feel more like your own.
• There are a lot of Talents but not too many good ones. I looked through the talent trees pretty extensively and only found 2 or 3 per class that seemed like they would have a big impact on how the character plays.
• I really hope they will put in a party inventory screen. It stresses me out not being able to see all of my equipment and items in a grid so I can take a holistic view of all my stuff.
• I tried out hacking for the first time. I think I get the gist of it but it's a pretty intricate system. I saw a forum post from the devs saying they consider it be a third pillar of gameplay (the others being combat and stealth) so I guess I will have to figure it out eventually.

Anyway, I will be looking forward to continued updates from the devs and seeing how things progress. I really think this will eventually end up being one of the great titles of the SRPG genre, up there alongside X-Com and JA2.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

The contrast between the concept art and this plastic 3d model they are using for everything hurts. I understand doing these plastic 3D model is cheaper and prolly better for their budget but goddam it's just plain ugly.

Tried 3 missions so far and gameplay wise... it's OK I guess? The problem like 95% of other Turn Based games is the dumb as brick AI. They doesn't seem to understand the concept of taking cover and flanking you

 

[Serious_Business]

Anyway, I will be looking forward to continued updates from the devs and seeing how things progress. I really think this will eventually end up being one of the great titles of the SRPG genre, up there alongside X-Com and JA2.

High praise and good to hear. I was highly anticipating this title but to be honest the demo put a lot of cool water on my enthusiasm ; I thought it felt quite clumsy. I'll definitively give this another shot, however. My expectations are in fact quite high as I put a lot of confidence in the Trese Brothers, which is why I was dissapointed by the (understandable) limits of the demo. I also agree that the game doesn't look very good, but what are you gonna do.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Update #9: Hotfix Rollup

Since you might be seeing a series of small updates to Cyber Knights: Flashpoint in Steam, we wanted to put up a new post detailing the fixes that are going along with each. This is from a series of 3 small hotfix patches that focus on fixing the hottest issues in the F10 queues.

We're very excited to see these queues really starting to normalize and now are going around and squashing the biggest bugs left one by one. We've got more to do - always more! - but with this set of hotfixes, we're closing out some of the last major sets of soft locks etc.

If you're enjoying the pace of update and seeing the game expand and improve, please consider leaving a review and telling a friend about us!

Armor Points
We've fixed a bug that was showing that all armor had 0 Armor Points in the Safehouse UI for the market and equipment. With the Armor Points now correctly shown, the prices of these armors is suddenly justified!

Armor Points are the number of times your Armor can suffer a Shredded effect before your Armor degrades to using the lower of the two Protection Values. The Poly-78 Hardsuit shown below has Armor Points 2. While it has any Armor Points left, it will use its 70% Protection value but if it is Shredded twice on a mission, it will drop to its 40% Protection. A good reason to consider Patch Kits and Talents that can repair your armor's adaptive nano-material to keep that higher value. Taking hits with 70% is going to stay minor damage ranges but if your Armor hits 0 points, you're going to suddenly start taking much bigger hits.

Overwatch Soft Lock
While rare, a situation in which overwatch started triggering and then target moved (during the short slow motion animation time) into a position where they were out of range or sight would cause Overwatch to simply hang in slow-mo forever. This is now fixed.

Blue Box in Talent Bar
If you were having a game that got stuck due to a blue box appearing in the Talent bar, we've fixed it. The suspicious is that you may have Respec'd a lot or used a lot of items. There was an unexpected bug in the game when you reached your 99th Talent as it conflicted with the default Take Cover Talent. Woops, fixed.

Pushy Cybernetics Sales
We fixed the issue that whenever you entered the cybernetics surgery market, it automatically tried to sell you one of the Plastic Bone Grafts. Hit ESC to cancel of course, but no need to be so push, Doctor. We've had some real Doctor issues around here.

Cyberdecks and Hackers
If you had any issue with newly multi-classed Hackers not getting a cyberdeck, get that team back to the safehouse and it will resolve -- all Hackers will have a cyberdeck automatically now. Also, fixed for any future multi-class training.

Everasting Stun
Shock Mines and any "Stunned!" effect were lasting forever. That is now resolved.

v1.0.31 - 10/30/2023
- Correctly prevent any character/cybernetic/equipment/appearance changes to inactive/dead/recruitable characters
- Fixed all display of Armors in Safehouse, Market, Equipment that always incorrectly showed 0 Armor Points
- Fixed Overwatch issue that could leave the game stuck in slow motion state
- Fixed bug in cyberware implant screen that would immediately attempt to install Bone Grafts on open
- Fixed issue with implanting Matrix Link not always granting a cyberdeck
- Fixed issues with Stun effect (shock mines, etc) lasting forever

88 Rate up

 

[cyborgboy95]

Update #10: Hover Drop

Update #10 rolls out a set of big quality of life improvements, level polishing and more UI hovers after an exciting weekend of new content. We're hard at work on the next mission to drop, but for the moment we've got a bevy of fixes driven by your F10s and requests on the Steam boards.

If you're enjoying the pace of development and improvement in the game, please remember to share the game and leave a review.

Icon Update
We're nearly done with a full icon update across all of the classes and Talent trees, getting all of the Talents up to the new consistent and sharper style. This drop is especially helpful as it wipes out most of the places were a duplicate icon was being used that could leave some confusion. We're one update away from wrapping up this project of re-icon-ifying!

Level and Mission Fixes
We've improved the Blue Door situation in Salvage Breakout so that it is bi-directional in the second levle, giving you even more options on how to proceed through the mission. We've fixed an area of Carnivore that was oddly unpassable and really tripping up some of your enemies as well.

Hiding Hacker Recruit
If you went through the Salvage Breakout mission, there are some paths that could lead to the Hacker being on your team but then disappearing when they went on their first mission. If you finished that mission they would have re-appeared but we've provided a fix for this in Update #10. First - all future games that take these story choices will not have a disappearing hacker and second - if you get your team back to the Safehouse, the hacker's character record will be fixed.

Hover Drop
We've added useful hovers to all stat entries for Weapons, Weapon Mods and Armor. These describe the rules of each stat in detail and should be helpful in helping you make informed decisions about your equipment to carry.

v1.0.33 - 10/31/2023
- Added and updated 30 Talent icons to consistent style
- Fixed issues with story recruit from Salvage Breakout might not appear on next mission - restore to safehouse to fix
- Fixed Marker Sights and other Talent's Crit Vulnerability not being shown in accuracy/crit % breakdown top right
- Improved Salvage Breakout Level 2: Blue Door is now bi-directional
- Improved Weapon, Weapon Mod and Armor equipment/market screens - better labels, value formatting and added rule explanation hovers to all stats
- Fixed issue at end of Carnivore where corrupt cop does not appear in contact list
- Fixed impassible area in Carnivore far balcony
- Restored missing Tag titles in Legwork ("Tag.Name.109" etc)
- Fixed typos, thanks for F10s

 

[PanteraNera]

I miss the old times, when games got released finished.
So tempting to start playing this right now, but I know that I probably will not play the full release if I do.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Update #11: New Mission "Forward Op"

Update #11 follows in the footsteps of Update #8 to add another new mission to the game. We've heard a lot and observed from players that the Cube Run was not the best or smoothest "first mission" after the Aug-Clinic Rooftop, and so today we've remedied that by dropping Forward Op mission as its replacement. We've also added an exciting new Vanguard Talent "Refract" which lets the Vanguard help the team with stealth and injected clear rules about Glancing Hits into all of the weapon details in equipment and marketplace.

If you like the pace of new content, updates and more, please consider leaving a review and sharing the game with a friend!


New Mission: Forward Op
We've added the Forward Op mission, a single stage raid with good variation each time it is played as the starting mission suggested as a good way to make a quick profit. It's a great mission with a lot of options about how to get your loot and get out before things get too hot.

We heard from players in Discord, on the forums and through F10s that the previous starting mission, Cube Run, was a big lift in difficulty to throw out as the second mission of the game, and we could also see that a large number of players were landing in the safehouse and immediately jumping right into Cube Run without much further prep. Our analysis matches -- Cube Run is a 2 stage mission with hard difficulty and more pressure on your team to keep it together for an extended heist.

Will my veteran team be able to play new content?
Good question - because we're going to be adding a lot of new content. Our commitment is to, whenever possible, say "yes." In this case, we've swapped in a new mission, "Forward Op" for the first mission you're offered in the safehouse. It would be easy to say this content is new game only, but we are dedicated to making all new content available to veteran teams. So, in this case, they story system will introduce Forward Op to veteran groups as a regular story opportunity later when they are playing forward on the timeline.

So - new team or old team, you get both Cube Run and Forward Op. Good luck!

Vanguard's New Trick: Refract
The Vanguard's newly added Talent is Refract which projects an 8 meter long illusion, hiding the Vanguard and their team's movement to anyone on the other side of the wall. The Refract projection prevents sight - and therefore attacks - but does not prevent movement. A patrolling or charging guard will pass right through the illusion and then be able to see to the far side.

Refract gives the Vanguard new options to assist the team with stealthy operations, plugging gaps, letting them slip through enemy patrol lines and more. It's very versatile and we hope you enjoying figuring out how to make fools out of the enemy patrols using it!

This cool new capability will rely on the cybernetic Holo-Pro in the future but for now is available to all Vanguards.

Glancing Hit Rules
Glancing Hits can occur when you fail your main Accuracy roll (you would miss!) but your Accuracy to hit your target is above a certain threshold. For most weapons, this threshold is 80% - so once you reach the 80% to hit mark, you're guaranteed to get a hit and do some damage. So, Glancing Hits ensure you are going to get some damage out of reliable attacks, based on the regular Accuracy and their special rules.

Melee weapons are guaranteed to get a Glancing Hit with every attack. If you get that up-close-and-personal, you never get a full miss. However, the damage is highly dependent on your starting Accuracy, so first you would like to get a real hit, and if you end up with a Glancing Hit you're going to do more damage if your starting Accuracy was 80% versus 50%.

Burst Fire weapons -- AR, UA and SMGs -- all have the Precise Burst Rule lowers their Glancing Hit threshold to 60%. These types of weapons have good insurance if they can lock onto a target and let out rapid burst, they're going to tag the target at least a bit. The Precise Burst rule only applies when using the Burst Fire firing mode, so switching up to Full Auto returns to the 80% threshold.

All of this is now explained in game on the weapon's screens -- enjoy!

Tag and Headshot Fixes
We are working retroactively to fix some story bugs. Early games in Early Access were created without the correct Sibling Tag for Emille and her brother. Our commitment is to never lose a saved game, so we're starting a process of "healing" these games now and will continue to add more "heal checks" for other types of issues we find. Now, if you return to the safehouse with one of these teams, Emille will have the correct Sibling tag for Marcus.

We also made some rules that exempted headshots from texture downgrading so that character headshots in all parts of the game are as clean and crisp as possible regardless of your quality and texture settings.

v1.0.35 - 11/2/2023
- Added new mission "Forward Op" to replace "Cube Run" as the post-rooftop mission
- Cube Run joins the regular pool of stories to be selected by proc-gen as you play forward
- New mission "Forward Op" available to veteran groups, it will appear on your timeline if you play forward
- Added Vanguard new Talent Refract can be used to create illusory wall blocking enemy sight for short time (but not movement)
- Added Glancing Hit special rules for every weapon type to the equipment screens
- Fixed Emille not having canonically correct Sibling tag for Marcus in all games upon return to Safehouse
- Improved rendering of character and enemy headshots throughout game on all quality settings

 

[cyborgboy95]

Update #12: X the Spot

Update #12 is back to smashing the hottest list of F10s from the player base. Thanks to everyone for submitting everything - bugs, feedback, suggestions and awesome ideas. Thanks for the great posts to the forum as well. This is Early Access, and we aim to improve - so let's do it together.

If you're enjoying the pace of updates and improvements to the game, please tell a friend and leave a review!

Forward Op Fixes
We've fixed a number of minor issues with the Forward Ops mission. Thanks for all the F10s! The camera that was hiding its range is now resolved as well as the issue with the inability to throw grenades out of the starting zone. We've heard so much good feedback about this mission, it's exciting to see it has hit the right nerve as the first starting mission offered in the safehouse.

Missions Without Knight
During the design and alpha phases, we built for 50% of missions not requiring the Knight. From a story perspective, a benched or Injured Knight can use their powerful quantum countermeasures from nearby the heist and not specifically need to be on the ground.

We're returning to this goal as we build out additional content - and especially proc-gen mission content. We've adjusted the FORWARD OP mission to not require the Knight and the DEAD DROP HIT could already be run without the Knight. In the case that you want to protect your Knight from risk or you're already injured, this design commitment will help you have more options.


X Marks the Spot
For Talents like Lure that target a specific spot on the ground, we now draw an X on the in-world geometry that will be targeted. This can be helpful just to be clear where the target is and also help indicate when the target will be on higher ground or not where you might expect it sometimes.


Hacker AP Gains
In some cases, with plugging into the matrix, the Hacker could gain AP. This bug and minor exploit is now resolved and hacking will cost at least 1 AP on top of any AP spent inside the Matrix.

Mission Difficulty Tags
There has been some incorrect mission difficulty tags showing in mission planning for a while. The difficulty shown (Moderate, Hard, Impossible!) was not actually being calculated by based on (because, this obviously makes sense) the date the mission was created. :facepalm: Until we can make some more realistic calculations, we've hidden these tags and you can look at the mission map to see its stage count and read its details to make your own call.


Hair Coloring
We've resolved all of the issues with hair styles that were ignoring being recolored. In some cases, this has resulted in the ability to apply 2 colors, like for the mohawk. We've also fixed over 40 issues with minor cosmetic overlaps, heads poking through hats, and glasses being oddly positioned on some faces. There is more to do but we've made a huge dent in the set of minor issues and resolved everything directly reported through F10 in this set.

v1.0.37 - 11/4/2023
- Fixed issue with sight lines and throwing grenades in starting area of "Forward Op" mission
- Fixed potential issue with Hacker's gaining AP from hacking
- Added targeting "x" to the center of Talents like Lure
- Removed incorrect difficulty tag shown with each mission (often stating "Impossible!")
- Removed requirement to take Knight along on the Forward Op
- Fixed all hairstyles that would not allow color adjustment
- Fixed 40+ minor clipping and position issues with cosmetic options
- Fixed confusing dialog about paying loan payments if Forward Op is added later in timeline
- Fixed broken camera in Forward Op over the lootbox on the platforms
- Fixed lighting issues with lootboxes in different levels

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3799409374477380830

Update #13: Sniper's New Bag
Pricing model fix for selling loot, Sniper Talent rework for less restrictions, more fun, fixed Hacking AP and more

Update #13 drops a big economic patch so you can make some real bank off your looting efforts, adjusts and buffs Sniper class to be more fun and less restrictive, and drops a mountain of fixes on Hacking, the Class tree and polishes up the Salvage Breakout levels a bit more.

Thanks again for everyone submitting F10s! We're excited to keep the pacing burning hot and fixing and improving constant. If you're enjoying the pace of updates to the game, please tell a friend and leave a review!

Next update -- more content and then hitting some of the November roadmap items!

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint AnnouncementThu, October 26, 2023
Announcing our roadmap! Planned content & features to come.
Sharing the full roadmap from now to just beyond Early Access completion—game systems, story content, classes, and more.

Economic Loot Pricing Fixes
The biggest impact for Update #13 is the adjustment and fixes to Cold Storage pricing display and pricing value. We've resolved the issue where the shown price was often nowhere near the price you'd be truly offered by a contact. There are still going to be variations as each Contact has different interest, Traits, etc but the prices are close.

Second, we've fixed the issue where so many things were simply selling for $1K. That wasn't helping your team's economy very much. Now, you should be able to make some good money, especially or Rare, Exotic or Legendary loot.

Sniper's New Bag
We've made a number of improvements and buffs to the Sniper's abilities to help make them more fun to play, less situational and more in line with the power sets of other classes like Cybersword.

First off, we've removed the requirement from Skullshot, Zeroed Sights and Weak Spot to be on a Hit Streak. Hit Streak is a fun mechanic and you can build a Sniper around it but it was too restrictive to force some much of the Alpha Kill part of the class tree to rely on the rarely-move, never-miss ways of the Hit Streaker.

Second, we've improved Skullshot to do just what it always should have - grant 3 AP, enough for another Sniper Rifle shot! Let the headshots rain! Reign? Rain! With this change, the extra +Crit % bonus has been swapped out into Skullshot's upgrade tree.

Hacker's Packet Loss
Hacker's Packet Loss was previously refreshing disabled device durations which did not match how everyone was hoping and wanting to use it. Now it will add directly to disabled device durations, allowing you to keep high priority devices offline longer by hammering them with the Talent.

Matrix AP Fixed
If you were hitting issues were you were getting 0 AP after Disconnecting from a Matrix host, these are now fixed. When you connect, or your turn starts already connected, you get your real world AP x 10 + Matrix AP boosted in. Once you've disconnected, you'll get a maximum of your real world (AP - 1) or your (Matrix AP / 10) whichever is lower. So - you're charged for the Matrix at maximum 1 AP or whatever you use while hacking.

Class Tree Fixes
We worked our way through about 20 F10s about broken things in the class tree for this update - here are the fixes. Hacker's Spoof now has its upgrades showing. The Knight Stopgap upgrades have been adjusted and the +/- Evasion issue is fixed. We've removed the nonsensical multi-Turn armor buff for Cybersword's Shielded Rush and instead extended its reach another +1 AP.

We've also rolled out the last 10 icon fixes for the class trees

! That was 111 new icons, quite the grind.

Salvage Breakout Fixes
We've made the description of Stage 1A and 1B more clear in regards to how direct the path is with or without a hacker. We've also fixed some odd navigation along one of the fence lines that was the source of quite a few F10s.

v1.0.39 - 11/6/2023
- Fixed economics of Cold Storage - if you see a price listed, that is sell price (+/- Contact specific Traits and relationship)
- Improved Sniper build options and fun of play - Skullshot, Zeroed Sights and Weak Spot no longer require being on Hit Streak
- Upgraded Sniper's Skullshot to +3 AP for killing shot, moved +25% Crit bonus into upgrades
- Upgraded Hacker's Packet Loss to work better and just extend disabled duration for already disabled devices
- Added and updated last 10 Talent icons
- Fixed issue with Stress / Edge meter always showing the same negative/positive value
- Fixed bug with AP being set to 0 on disconnect from Matrix incorrectly
- Improved description of 2 starting stages in Salvage Breakout and how they relate to take a hacker or not
- Improved some navigation issues in Salvage Breakout stage 1 around the barrier near hoverpad
- Fixed missing upgrades for Hacker's Spoof Talent in class tree
- Fixed Knight class tree issues with Stopgap upgrades
- Fixed 5th upgrade node of Cybersword's Shielded Rush