Knights and mercs, we're touching down again in NBZ with another update focused on smashing "root" community F10s - the ones that are making the most chatter, putting in the most bug reports and causing the most confusion. With Update #246, we've put our focus on fixing your Contact and Face F10s - so here goes!

We've resolved the issue with the duplicate Data Filter I program that was popping up for sale. Instead a new variation of the Data series has been added, Data Sieve I. Happy shopping, hackers.

We fixed a bug with the Face's Co-Conspire Talent that was preventing your promised +10% Influence to be immediately awarded.

Also, around Co-Conspire, when it was being used and the Contact was also offering another conversation, often the button to start the conversation was appearing and disappearing rapidly. This is now resolved.

Face characters were having Limit Breaks that offered options that didn't make sense for the safehouse and network focused characters. These have now been correctly updated to only offer the Face's special Attributes.

With Update #246, ensured that Contacts who are "In Hiding" can no longer be active in any way. They will not start storylines, offer proc-gen missions or Legworks and can no longer provide Leverages while in this state.

We've also fixed the Contact filtering in this list to work correctly with Friend, Enemy and expanded the Missing category to include "No Card" contacts who you are know about but are unable to reach directly.

We've also added the option to sort by Exposure, which was a popular request.

We've cleaned up a number of backstory oddities for Contacts coming off recruits. Some Contacts were written to not like or even Hate a recruit, but might appear with Friendly Status and 0% Trust. Now they will hate you nice and good. Also, one of Zasha's contacts - the one she'd like revenge against - was appearing with an Unknown Faction and as a Wireghost which does not fit the storyline and is now fixed for future games.

We are always grinding away on the maps - they are many, we are few. But we're going to polish until they shine and no more F10s! With this update, we've fixed an issue where a rogue Terminal was appearing in the Sibling Job prison and blocking an important lootbox. We've also fixed some open field spawns and improved movement paths for Assassination targets across a number of maps.

- Recast duplicate Data Filter I program for sale as Data Sieve I, new Utility type
- Fixed issue with Co-Conspire not immediately giving the +10% Influence as promised
- Improved Limit Breaks for Face characters - correct Attributes offered for bonuses
- Contacts in Hiding will no longer offer proc-gen missions, legwork or Leverages on missions
- Added Exposure sort option to the Contact list
- Fixed Contact filtering by Friend/Enemy/Dead/Missing, No Card to be accurate
- Fixed issue with Contact Conversation button disappearing suddenly when moving between options
- Fixed lingering issues where end of Contact Tag text could have code jargon instead of string
- Fixed issue with terminal blocking lootbox in Sibling Job prison map
- Fixed backstory Contacts for ex-Los Zagales Soldier, all 3 Contacts have negative Trust and are Enemies
- Fixed backstory issues with Contact that is Zasha's revenge target

Knights and mercs, we are rolling out a polish update for Friday. We're constantly working to keep up with the F10s coming in from the community, taking your feedback, fixing bugs and improving everything we can. This update is a big one, hitting on a ton of nice things for you - it's polish Friday! We've improved the rules for Cyber Knights getting new implants, fixed a big bug with Gunslinger's Fanning, made a host of improvements for the Steam Deck controls and clarity of display on its screen, improved noise display of Talents and Items like grenades and more. Let the F10s fall, let the cyberpunk reign!

If you are enjoying the relentless pace of updates for the game, please take a moment to leave a review. Our tiny dev team thanks you!

When a Cyber Knight takes on a quantum rider into their spine, it changes them forever. The integration of the quantum tactical computer is deep, and it makes them extremely fast, tough, and at times, nearly prescient.

Another benefit of the quantum rider is that a Cyber Knight's body responds exceptionally well to new cybernetics. To bring this lore into the game, we've added the Rapid Integration special rule for Cyber Knights - their recovery time from cyber surgery is now automatically half of what it is for a normal merc. This is also a big help to keep your Knight in the action, as so many missions, heists, and critical outings require their presence.

We also fixed a bug where some of the special rules for implants had bad text in their title and if a cybernetic was installing you couldn't hover over it to see all of its stats until it finished the install. Plus finally, if a slot has no options to install, then it is grayed out and cannot be accessed.

Happy splicing!

We've fixed the bug with Gunslinger's Fanning. Once you took some shots with Fanning you were basically locked into Full Auto mode forever. Heck, I think if you had a Sword it would be a Full Auto Sword. ... Now I wish we had this bug back.

Fixed!

With Update #245, we've made a wide set of improvements for the Steam Deck.

First, we've addressed an issue where due to the small screen of the Steam Deck, a lot of basic UI images were rendering badly. For example, the selection lines for a button could disappear because in the source image (designed for 1080p) the yellow line is only 1 px wide, and when scaled down a bit, that can go to 0 px wide and poof. So, we've updated over 100 images and UI situations in the game in which the Steam Deck wasn't giving good clarity of its UI rendering - from the buttons to backgrounds, class tree and more. None of these were big blockers, but they did make the game less nice to look at - so key work! Thanks to everyone reporting F10s here!

We've improved the display for Full Auto and Grenade Arc on the Deck and controllers. Due to a lack of total button count, controllers start with a single button (RT) bound to changing the target count or adjusting the grenade arc. To still give you the full functionality, we've ensured that it is properly labeled, that the unbound key is hidden, and that the targets/arc loop as you press the single button. So, if you have 4 Full Auto targets, pressing (RT) once will loop you back to 1 target, then 2, 3, 4, and then 1 again. This gives you the full range of options with a single button.

We've also made 3 changes to the Matrix to make it more controller / Steam Deck friendly:

• The IC panel now auto-scrolls with the selected element. Ahhh, nice.
  
• When the Matrix screen came up on your second Turn in the Matrix and you were using a controller, the selection state was left in a bad way that made it really hard to get going for that Turn. This is now resolved.
  
• When you disconnected from the Matrix, sometimes your Hacker would not be able to move afterwards, or moving another character would actually move the Hacker (!?!)

With Update #245, we've updated how Talents control the noise icons overhead of enemies on the map. Now, when you select a Talent or Item to use, the overhead noise icons will only appear if that Talent or Item creates enough noise to alert them. This is most useful for Grenades where the overhead ear can let you know how many enemies will hear that big boom. It can also give confirmation for Talents like Venom Trap and items like Shock Mine that when thrown, no one will hear it.

In the case of a weapon attack, the regular Ear icon is shown. In the case of noise caused by a Talent, a small box is inserted around the Ear. This can help you spot the difference when it matters.

It is small but felt important - the Face Talent list now always aligns nicely with the Cold Storage border, regardless of screen resolution.

- All cyber surgery recovery times for Cyber Knight reduced by 50% - quantum rider hardens their system and speeds integration
- Fixed bug with Gunslinger's Fanning that could keep you locked in Full Auto mode forever
- Improved screen scaling mode for Steam Deck, updated hundreds of UI images to scale better, improve rendering of backgrounds and selection
- Steam Deck / Controller - fixed Matrix IC panel not correcty auto-scrolling with selection
- Steam Deck / Controller - fixed Matrix not having correct selection setup on second turn sometimes
- Steam Deck / Controller - improved controls for Full Auto / Grenade arc, with one button bound it will "loop" to make all options available
- Fixed bug where you might be unable to move after Hacking or Hacker might move when another player moves (!!?)
- Further improved variety of Leverages offered for missions in the Hacking Station
- Fixed issues with character Initiative changing if you reload the first Turn sometimes
- Prevented Face Handbrake Talent from being used with highest priority story missions, such as Meteoric Hotdrop
- Fixed bug with Paused nodes not always sorting to the end of the timeline
- When planning a Talent/Item use that make noise - such as a grenade - the overhead "will hear" icons update to be for Talent
- Improved Safehouse UI for Face Talents so that they always line up nicely with the border of Cold Storage room
- Improved cyber surgery screen by disabling/greying out out slots that have 0 options so it is more clear
- Fixed issue where cybernetic would not show its details while it was installing
- Fixed bug where incorrect attack details in top right were shown when a grenade throw was being planned
- Fixed missing name of some high value Cred Chips
- Fixed recruit character name missing from warning that recruit offer is about to expire
- Fixed bug where sometimes tags on mission deploy screen could be overly large of bump UI down incorrectly
- Removed Screen Scale option (it broke all screens) - use Font Size + Screen Mode

Knights and mercs, with less than 30 days to go until the release, we're working hard to churn out the last series of relentless updates and achieve as much from our roadmap as possible before the big content drop at launch. With Update #244, we've dropped 5 new cybernetics which fill out the Arms and Lungs slots, also adding special new effects like Carrying 2 Heavy Weapons and the first cybernetic implant-driven Talent. We've also improved enemy icons for their classes, fixed the progression for Contact Traits Indebted and Partner, improved Leverage variety on the Hacking Station, improved the text for NanoFab to ensure the Intrinsic bonus shows that it stops at 100% and more is wasted, rebalanced a ton of weapons and fixed bugs with Shock Mines and Venom Traps. Plus F10s - we closed a ton of community reported issues and little polish things, typos, map bugs and more.

We're grinding so hard right now, so if you like the pace of updates and the constant improvements to the game, please take a moment to thank our team of 3 game devs with a review.

With Update #244, we've filled out the remaining cybernetic slot with some awesome new chrome to try out. While you won't have every slot available to you with a starting cyber surgeon, once you get an upgrade to the service, you'll have at least one option in every slot.
Adding the 3 new Mecha Arm options and 2 cybernetic Lung options puts extra exciting build pressure on your 6 max cybernetics. We're excited to see how this new addition of content (and those that will follow) start to put some great new build spins and help new specializations develop.

With the new cybernetics in Update #244, we've added new special effects and the first cybernetic-driven Talent.

• The Dual Haul MXP allows you to carry 2 Heavy Weapons (boom!) at a heavy cost of Move Speed, as that rig is heavy
  
• Thankfully, the ADV Filter Lung implant invokes the new "Cancel Move Speed Penalty" effect, allowing you to reduce penalties on Move Speed (but not go above 0%) so that might be a good pairing if you are going heavy.
  
• Finally, the Trache-Lifeflow Lung implant grants a new passive Talent that deploys healing nano straight into your bloodstream when you take damage. A Talent granted from a cybernetic is added when you get the cybernetic, removed if you remove it and does not count against your Class Training. This low level implant and Talent only has one activation per mission, but can still be a powerful way to reduce the need to carry medkits and provide some immediate and AP-free damage mitigation, as the nano-healing effect lasts for 3 Turns.

We've also finally fixed the progression of the Contact Traits Indebted and Partnered, allowing them to kick off more Favors month over month. The first upgrade will bring them up to a state where they give +1 Favor one month and then +2 Favors the next month and then loop. Their 4th upgrade brings them all the way up to +2 Favors a month!

As we prepare to dump a bunch of new weapons, mods and implants into the game, we've done some housekeeping on the existing weapon set to make sure that we reduce the "drift" from the original design for weapons. This is about half debuffs and half buffs - in all cases, pushing the weapons more into "their corner" and focusing on allowing you to build out extra capabilities for the weapons with their mods or variant builds available in blueprints and the store.

We've capped AR/UAR range so that it doesn't creep up with levels, as well as capping SMG and Revolver range as well. In both cases, their Optimal Range still increases, but not as much. If you'd like extended range, look for variations on the regular weapons or find mods to install. We've buffed Shotguns with even stronger Armor Crit %, ensuring that it also grows level-over-level more aggressively. We've reduced Shock Clubs Armor Crit %, as they are a stunning weapon and to quote a team member: "club's don't shred!" And finally, the Stealth Crit Dmg progression for Blades is improved over their progression.

We've fixed a pile of issues where the Gold Key might be mentioned but not offered or offered but not used. This includes Clockwork Rescue mission from Daedalus Bloc.

We've improved a ton of text formatting for Talent special rules and Traits. We'll be working on cleaning more of these up in the weeks to come. In this round, we've fixed a number of Traits that were not displaying their reduction in % chance as they increased in level, such as Out to Prove and others.

Also, we've fixed display for the Line Crawler Talent so its upgrade nodes read better. With this new set of text formatting rules, we should be able to hammer out the rest that are not formatting great over the next few weeks. Thanks to everyone for putting in F10s for these!
- Added 5 new cybernetic implants to the basic Cybernetics Service, filling out the Arms and Lungs slot with options
- Arms implants M-Jaks add Kinetic Damage and Dual Haul MXP allows carrying 2 Heavy Weapons
- Lung implants ADV Filter mitigates Move Speed penalties, Trache-Lifeflow automatically deploys healing nano when taking damage
- Added new class icons for enemy mecha infantry, snipers, differentiated captains from VIPs
- Improved Contact Traits Indebted (more Favors, Heat Res) and Partner (more Favors, better cost reductions)
- Improved variety of Leverages offered for missions in the Hacking Station
- NanoFab crafting plan shows cap of 100% on Intrinsic Chance, do not waste cubes above 100%
- Fixed bug with Venom Trap, Shock Mine and other thrown items incorrectly making noise as if your gun was fired
- Fairer range cap for UAR/AR - AR (max 30, optimal creeps up to 26), UAR (max 24, optimal creeps to 18)
- Fairer range cap for SMG/Revolvers - SMG (max 25, optimal creeps to 20), Revolvers (max 30, optimal creeps to 20)
- Fairer progression for AR/SMG on Armor Crit %, less growth, flattened curve (get some mods!)
- Improved Shotgun progression on Armor Crit %, higher chance to shred enemy armor on basic models
- Reduce chance for Shock Clubs to Armor Crit % to 10% across the board, clubs don't shred
- Regular Blades and E-Cutters improved progression of Stealth Crit %, best for regular blades
- Fixed bug where Overwatch was not setting Initiative for the next Turn correctly (current Init-2) after Update #229
- Fixed map issues and cases were Gold Key was or was not offered correctly, including Clockwork Rescue job
- Fixed rules for formatting special effects like Line Crawler, Out to Prove Trait, Amnesiac Test Subject so values are more clear

Knights and mercs, we've got another update touching down on the NBZ launch pad today. Update #243 adds a new proc-gen objective, Boosted VIP, which is one of the most interesting mission formats yet, fixed issues with Active Leverage not being available, improved Leverage pricing to be dynamic, added a new red skull icon next to HP bars where a hit will guarantee a kill, upgraded the icon indicating an enemy will hear your gunfire, improved headshot zooming in main HUD, fixed issues with Face Talents Dealmaker and Insider Hustle and ... more. F10s, things, map issues! Let's dig in.

If you are enjoying the relentless pace of updates as we close in on our June 2nd release, please take a moment to leave a review! Yes, we are just 4 weeks out!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1021210/announcements/detail/516334711921967606?snr=2___

While we've taken a bit of a pause in dropping a constant stream of new maps, we are excited to drop a brand new proc-gen objective today with Boosted VIP! In this dynamic objective type, a valuable defector is traveling across a mission map under heavy security detail, "bodyguards".
You'll use a Leverage to convert the target defector into a friendly character at a time of your own choosing, and then need to get that defector to the extraction point alive. The Boosted VIP creates a really cool scenario in which, for some of the levels, you're in pursuit of an enemy VIP, trying to get close enough without kicking the bee's nest, and in the second half of the level, you're trying to extract a vulnerable VIP.
This higher challenge type of mission is only available at Power Level 4+.

With the new Boosted VIP proc-gen objectives, we are trying out a new "revealed extraction" system that gives you a preview of where your team will need to extract after the primary mission objective is completed. This means you can check your objectives from the very first turn, and by clicking on the locked extraction objective, you will get a look at where your extraction will be. Once the enemy defector is converted to your side, the extraction will open up.

If this system works well and you, the players, like it - we will dive into the hour intensive process to spread it to a wider set of missions within the game.

Please let us know!

If an enemy will hear your gunshot, we've swapped over to an ear icon. This icon is shown in the bottom left with your weapon and over the head of an enemy who would hear your attack.
The previous update had a bug where Leverages were not appearing in mission after you purchased them. This was fixed with a hotfix, but it is also fixed in this update.

In addition, we've changed the pricing on some Leverage so that they are now dynamic and increase by the Power Level of the mission. This helps keep these fair (a Gold Key for a starting mission can't be $10K, and the Gold Key for the last mission is still $10K!).

To help make it crystal clear when the guaranteed damage from an attack will kill an enemy, we've added a red skull icon next to their HP in this case. This indicates that the enemy will die without needing any Damage that is rolled, so as long as you hit them they will die.

As promised!

We're continuing to improve the new headshots that have gone out last week. With this update, we changed the zoom level and positioning of the shots in the main mission HUD, getting back to the "head and shoulders" feeling we had before and not the "camera squashed against face" feeling we had there for a minute.

We also fixed the portraits looking the wrong way in the victory and defeat screens.

The Face is a massive class with their tendrils in possibly every system in the strategy layer. Thanks for sending in F10s if you are hitting bugs or rough edges. We will keep working on improving. We are working on their Limit Breaks - thank you for the F10s!

With this update, we've fixed Dealmaker not always adding the extra +10% Influence bonus when a mission is completed from a Contact with the chosen factions. Also, we've improved the rules for the Counter-Intel Tokens and Insider Hustle - if you haven't trained the Talent, then you don't get any default Contacts. This will be fixed in a future update when Face's Traits become much cooler and integrate with their new Talents, and each Face gets a specific set of Contacts by default in the Counter-Intel Room (Blur will always be able to work with Street Contacts).

We've also just been mining at the F10 mountain this week, giving extra attention to killing off "root issues" that are causing outsized numbers of F10s.

• Mouse and Keyboard users will not have their selection "hang" in the Initiative timeline and prevent easy movement after clicking up there.
  
• Objectives for Infiltrate and Download missions will no longer incorrectly point to Gold Room terminals even though the files aren't there.
  
• Safehouse Missions warn about expiration at 0h instead of 6h.
  
• Improved Overwatch description to be clear about their Initiative rules - for more details see the Overwatch page on the wiki[cyberknightswiki.tresebrothers.com]

- Added new proc-gen objective: Boosted VIP - VIP starts as an enemy under bodyguard protection, boost them, and extract them safely
- Boosted VIP appears at Power Level 4+ and has 4 maps available, +4 total proc-gen combos
- Testing out new Revealed Extraction system with Boosted VIP
- Some Leverages now have more variable pricing that increases with mission power level
- A new red skull icon appears next to the enemy HP bar if they are guaranteed to die if the attack hits
- Upgraded icon for enemies hearing your attacks - now an ear icon instead of the bullet shockwave icon from before
- Fixed headshots looking the wrong way in victory/defeat
- Improved zoom of headshots in main mission HUD
- Fixed issue with Counter Intel Pod having Token-for-Favor offers even without Face Talent
- Improved controller vs. mouse/keyboard handling for Initiative timeline in main mission
- Fixed bug with Face's Talent Dealmaker not always granting the full +20% Influence boost
- Adjusted warning for mission expiration to run at 0h remaining instead of 6h
- Fixed bug with Infiltrate and Download Objectives reporting files still in Gold Key rooms even though they are not
- Fixed bug preventing Active Leverages from being usable
- Fixed issue with scrolling dropdown (like in Options) not showing first item on Steam Deck
- Fixed issue with status screen Talent list showing 5 charges for all Talents
- Improved Overwatch Talent description to include notes about Initiative in the next Turn

Knights, we're just 4 weeks away from our full launch: Monday, June 2nd, at 9am Eastern Standard Time.[www.google.com]

Each week we'll be counting down and sharing some special info to help everyone get ready for launch. This week: a bit about us and ways to stay tuned[www.tresebrothers.com] for future projects.

My brother and I, Cory and Andrew Trese, have been making video games since 2011. We started in the early days of Google Play and transitioned to Steam-first in 2015, always dedicated to making deep, highly-replayable RPGs & strategy games.

Some great interviewers have gotten us talking more about how Trese Brothers Games has grown over the years; a couple of recent ones we recommend are this extensive written interview on Tom's Gaming Vault,[tomsgaming.com] and a fun video interview with strategy game streamer Sprigleaf.

It's challenging to be an indie studio without any outside investors but we've done it by prioritizing players, carefully scoping based on player feedback and what we know we can deliver on, and staying directly connected to our community through Steam forums and Discord.

Every successful launch (this is our 5th game on Steam) helps us grow and build better games. So even as Cyber Knights will continue to be our near-sole focus for quite a while after full launch, if you like our approach and want to make sure you don't miss future projects from us, we want to invite you to join our community.

Joining our Discord[discord.gg] connects you directly with us and an awesome community of 7,000+ other players as well. Following our developer account here on Steam is a great way to stay in the loop through Steam's own notifications. And we have accounts on most major social networks, particularly Bluesky[bsky.app] and YouTube.

But we all know how platforms can change at any time, often to the disadvantage of independent creators like us, so I'd particularly encourage you to please sign up for our Just-the-Big-News mailing list.[www.tresebrothers.com]

We have sent only four emails to this list in the past 5 years! It's an easy, no-distractions way to make sure you don't miss out on our next game! Hop on to get a notification when the time comes.[www.tresebrothers.com]

We'll see you next week with some info on what kind of post-launch content you can expect from us for Cyber Knights.

Knights and mercs, another early May update is touching down. This one has a big focus on polish for the Safehouse Timeline, perhaps the most core component of the strategy experience in the Safehouse. We've rebuilt its underpinnings, smoothed its animation and fixed all reported (over 200 F10s) issues with it in a big update. We've also further polished the headshots and their zoom, fixed a ton of minor map issues and a missing terminal, and continued to polish the Face Talents and balance.

We're hard at work making the game the best it can be and are not willing to let any stone go unpolished. If you are enjoying the game and relentless updates, please take a minute to leave a review ːsteamhappyː

Update #242 is dedicated to a set of issues that have caused a huge number of F10s over the last year. Sometimes the safehouse Timeline was just a little ... odd. You might see an event suddenly jump back 6 hours, sometimes a mission would fail to give its "about to end" warning if there were a pile of events nearly finished, and most annoyingly, if you got a pile of events ending at 0h, it could be hard to be sure the order they would resolve in.

This is a "guts" rewrite, so there is no actual change in good behavior, just a ton of smoothness and niceness in how the timeline operates. Here are some other examples:

• If you add 2 characters to a Simstream at the same time, they will both finish at the same time.
  
• No Injury or Wound event will hang at 0 hours and refuse to complete.
  
• When a pile of events end up at 0 hours, they will complete in the most player-friendly order with Injury, Wounds, Simstream, Cybernetic Recover all finishing before Missions.
  
• Removed the chance that you can click "Play" on the timeline and be interrupted multiple time by pop up (story started, limit break happened ...). Now, at max you'll get a single interrupt before it gets to the next Turn.
  
• There are a lot of other little, specific behavior changes. But in every case, we aimed for consistency and player-friendly behavior.

Thanks for all the feedback about the headshot update! We've further improved the lighting, shadow and post-processing used for taking the headshots to make them even nicer in all conditions. You can now just open the Appearance tab and select each character in turn on the Roster and their headshot will update to the latest. It takes about 1 second, so don't go too fast :D

We've also fixed some "over zoom" on the faces in places like the Timeline. It is much nicer to see a slightly wider shot of the Contact or Merc there.

We're excited to keep improving, so keep pushing us!

We've executed a number of fixes on map issues today as well as improving a number of props that were used throughout the game and missing certain metadata about how they should work.

There was a certain type of corporate desk where the middle of the desk was ethereal - you could fall or walk right through it. There were a number of rebar-and-concrete ruined walls, columns and arches that all had minor issues with their colliders, meaning that they didn't do a good job accurately blocking lines of fire or providing good cover.

We also fixed a bug that could lead to a missing terminal in the Decommissioned Core mission map on a number of different objective types.

With a huge release like Face, there is always a lot of cleanup todo. We've added their Talent listing to the safehouse help section, fixed a ton of typos in the new Leverages and further improved the text of their Talents and upgrades so that it can read more naturally.

Also, we discovered that some of the upgrades to their Field Coordination Talent did not cost any Level Points. If you happened to buy those, you may suddenly find yourself at a negative Level Point.

There is, of course, more to be done! We're working on fixing Face Limit Breaks and class node icons and then we'll get into fixing their Backstory and Traits to be exciting as the rest of their class.

- Rebuilt flow, pop-ups and event handling in timeline - all shifting, jumping, out of order, hung event bugs fixes
- Fixed issues with missing terminal in "Decommissioned Core" on some heists (F10)
- Fixed issue with some Field Coordination nodes not costing any Level Points to purchase
- Fixed issue with some ruined concrete and rebar props not having accurate sight line blocking
- Fixed issue with some corporate desks not stopping movement or colliding with dead bodies
- Fixed issue with victory reward text rendering
- Fixed issues with some hack only missions generating achievements incorrectly
- Added Face Talents bar to screen help system, tooltips
- Fixes issue with "Terminator Mesh" having 3 Armor Points
- Fixed flickering in hologram on cybernetics screen that was too much
- Fixes typos in safehouse token offers, Face focus offer upgrades

Knights and mercs, tonight's update has some major upgrades for controller and Steamdeck support as well as a full refresh of the character headshot component in the game. We've also fixed tons of issues reported with maps, typos and dialog misattributions and resolved mission generation issues where primary objective files could end up behind a Gold Key door on a terminal or lootbox.

If you're enjoying the relentless pace of updates and improvements to the game, please take a moment to leave a review. Now -let's dig in!

We've completed another round of visual updates for the headshots used in the game for all characters and contacts. This round has improved the rendering by zooming in a bit more, improving the centering of the shot, improving the pixel clarity, adding a better anti-aliasing solution to the saved image and also using the same post-processing stack that the rest of the game uses so that you get richer colors with more contrast and shadow. Also, this has removed the "flip" that was baked into every headshot where the final resulting 2D was horizontally flipped before being rotated (why, no one remembers or will admit to remembering ːsteamhappyː lol)

This update is automatic for all Contacts and for all new games but for your existing games and save slots, we cannot automatically go through and regenerate all the headshots. The fastest way to do this is to head to your Roster > Appearance and mouse over a few items without changing anything. This will update the headshot. Then pick the next merc and repeat. Apologies for this one!

This is an area (appearance in general) where the work doesn't really ever stop. We're just going to keep grinding to improve as much as we can.

Update #241 has a lot of nice improvements for controller and especially Steamdeck players. Let's just go through the list!

• The center cursor on the main mission map should no longer disappear (usually caused by accidentally touching the trackpad)
  
• When using Steamdeck or controller, the "invisible copy of the mouse" that might cause grids and tables to operate oddly, refuse to scroll or show double selection is now completely cleaned up.
  
• Removed all tab sets from standard D-pad navigation, so you don't accidentally nav in there. Use the LB / RB to move quickly between tabs, as shown in hotkey helpers.
  
• For anyone swapping between mouse, keyboard and controller, this is much cleaner now, requiring a keypress, button press or mouse click to force the mode swap for input. This also helps anyone who was struggling with a high sensitivity mouse that could just kind of kick the game back into mouse mode all the time.

This is a big set of internal changes to the input handling guts of the game so if you have any issues or we accidentally broke your input setup while fixing so many others, please let us know and we will jump all over it.

In some of the mission maps where a Terminal can appear behind a Gold Key Door, it was possible that some of the primary objective Files could therefore be hosted on that terminal. We've updated the metadata and the intelligence in the proc-gen builder so that it will avoid this scenario for all missions that involve hacking files off hosts. Objective Files will no longer appear behind Gold Keys in Terminals (and haven't appeared in Lootboxes in Gold Key areas for a while).

With Update #241 we moved the Camera Controls section of Options from the Gameplay tab to the Controls tab, where it makes more sense to live. We also added a new option that allows you to flip the rotation direction for all rotation inputs - from controller sticks or Q/E keyboard - in case the other direction feels more natural to you.

- Improved all headshots for all characters and contacts - update your headshots by opening appearance tab for each character
- Fixed issues with some appearance options (beards, glasses, hats) suddenly not fitting right
- Fixed issues with Heist File generation that could result in main objective Files being locked behind Gold Key Doors
- Improved navigation for controller D-pads by removing all tabs from navigation (use LB / RB to page through tab sets)
- Improved navigation for controller in grids and tables, the "invisible mouse" no longer causes odd second selection
- Improved controller cursor on main map, will no longer disappear if trackpad is brushed
- Improved game's handling of changing between controller and keyboard/mouse, touching mouse no longer swaps
- Added new option to swap direction of camera rotation for all inputs (keyboard, controller)
- Moved Camera Controls from Gameplay to Controls tab in Options

Knights and mercs, with the Face landing last week the strategic dust has settled a little and it is time to get back into the major update grind on the way to release. We dropped 5 separate small patches and hotfixes over the weekend for the Face, if you want to see those details you can check out the previous update notes. For Update #240, we've extended the Field Ops and Hacking Station room maximums, smoothed out Token generation numbers, added Team Power Level display to mission success screen, fixed issues with the Loot Box Injection Leverages, made the Initiative timeline and popping up status screens controller friendly, added hovers for Face Talents in the safehouse, improved ragdolls ... whew, hold one, I need a break ... fixed rules with Blend not ending for Grenades and ... never mind, forget it - we did stuff! Thanks for all the F10s, this one fixes an absolute mountain of them.

If you are enjoying the game and its direction as we race to the end of Early Access, our small team of 3 game developers would love you to leave a review. Thank you!

Three new levels of both the Field Ops and Hacking Station rooms have been added in this release.

With Update #240, we've completed a sweep to ensure that Loot Injection Leverage offers should not be made if there are no lootboxes to buff up. This is a big help to reduce confusion or misses with your Leverage. Second, we've fixed a number of issues with the loot injection routine that could give the offer when the mission Power Level is too low to really inject anything of value. Generally, #240 should reduce cases where you pay your Token for Loot Injection and don't feel like you got something out of it.

You can now use the D-pad on your controller (or arrow keys) to navigate up into the Initiative Timeline in the main mission map. Hit (X) to jump your selection to the HUD and hit up twice to reach the Initiative timeline. From here, you can use (A) once to focus the camera on a character or enemy and hit (A) a second time to pop up a character or enemy status window.

This also cleans up the clicking routine on the Timeline faces for mouse players as well, making it far more reliable that you will click once to center and click a second time to get a pop up, no further questions asked.

We also improved status page for enemy infantry drones (Po-Bot from the FSC and S-Class Brakka from Brave Star) to be clearer that they are Drones. We'll be continuing to work on making this more obvious as we roll out new types of drones in the coming weeks.

The increase of your Team Power Level (which is often small and fractional) is now clearly displayed in each mission you beat. Especially in the early game, late game and for proc-gen or hack only missions, these changes could be hard to track on your own, so now they are nicely displayed at all times. As your Team Power Level grows (by winning missions) the challenges you face will grow, so this is the key scaling metric.

We've completed the necessary work to make Talent hovers for your Face Talents work in the Safehouse. This allows you to see the Talent details and rules at a glance as well as dig into any additional charging data you might need.

With this update, we've further fixed issues with passive Talents like Steamroll that were not always activating on kills. These should now be 100% consistent across all attack types. Except Grenades, which do not count as killing with a weapon and do not activate "on Kill" passive Talents.

However, we did fix the rule that throwing a Grenade should drop your Blend or any other Talent that ends if you make an attack.

Finally, we fixed some issues with extracted mercs still having their passive Talents run sometimes. This was most obvious with the Vanguard's Glasswalker.

Before, it was almost guaranteed that one or both of these deadies would be stuck in midair

If you ever saw the situation where a dead enemy or character might ragdoll into another enemy or character and get "stuck" on them ... we've resolved this. Living and dead characters no longer collide. This can lead to dead bodies flopping directly through living characters but also completely removes the conflict that might leave the dead body hanging in mid-air for every because it was hung up on a live character. This also helps the enemy corpse reach a good spot on the ground, making it less visible. When the dead were hanging in the air like that, they might be unfairly easy to see!

- Added three new room upgrade levels for Hacking Station and Field Ops
- Smoothed and rebalanced token generation timelines for all Hacking Station and Field Ops levels
- Added display for Team Power Level change on mission success screens
- Fixes issues with Loot Box injection token offers being made when no loot boxes existed to fill
- Fixes issues with Loot Box injection token offers being made when power level of mission is too low
- Enabled controller navigation into the Initiative Timeline during mission to select faces, focus on target, open status window (double tap)
- Improved routine for opening status window (click or A twice, no more on odd camera centering rule)
- Improved status page for enemy infantry drones (Po-Bot and S-Class Brakkas) to be clearer that they are Drones
- Contacts who are in hiding have a clear red (instead of gray) message about it when buying / selling
- Added hover for Face Talents in the safehouse top right
- Added some ladders to make some spawn points more obvious in several street maps
- Fixed bug where dying ragdoll could get caught on living enemy or character
- Fixed visual hitches with enemies turning on patrol, characters turning toward lootboxes
- Fixed issue with Hacker's marked as "Under Equipped" when deck is in repair
- Fixing Steamroll and other On Kill Talents not always working for Full Auto, Grenades, Slashslide
- Fixed issue with Vanguard Blend Talent not clearing if you throw a Grenade
- Fixed issue where some extracted mercs could still have their passive Talents activate
- Fixed issue with appearance previews with Face sometimes reverting back to old outfit
- Fixed issues with connecting lines between mission stages in Safehouse Command HQ

Knights and mercs, the major milestone FACE - you guessed it ːsteamhappyː - brings the full role for your team's Face online with a unique class talent tree and new corresponding actions you can take directly from the safehouse.

Cyber Knights is a game about building your rep and connections to get access to richer but riskier opportunities, navigating competing demands from your squad, faction power players, and long-term goals while you keep walking further along the knife-edge of pursuing big scores and keeping your squad able to handle it. Now the Face can give you more control over how you pursue that path. For example, Co-Conspirator will let you get missions from specific Contacts you want to work with while Dealmaker will let you strengthen ties with specific faction types to increase both your and your Contacts rewards for completing heists.

Your Face is a master of the underworld, deploying talents to manipulate the strategic layer of the game. Their place is at the Safehouse, and unlike other character classes[cyberknightswiki.tresebrothers.com] in the game, they never join in missions or enter into combat - they hang back, play a mission overwatch role, and work the shadows. Using Care and Feeding, your Face can reroll options you don't like from your mercenaries' Limit Breaks and using Puppetmaster your Face can push a Contact with an Influence Limit Break to upgrade all of their services in a single go.

You can view all of your Face's actionable talents below the main timeline in the Safehouse HUD, making it easy to know when your powerful abilities are about to recharge again.

Representing the duality of a Knight-and-Face, which every team needs to survive, your Face gains Experience in lock step with their Knight. When your Knight gains XP, your Face gains the same XP, so you'll find that you have a high-level Face if your team is pro.

The Face also has their own unique set of attributes: Cunning, Persuasion, Handling. These attributes can be boosted through small nodes on the Face's talent tree or through Hype Limit Breaks; each boosts the success levels of several talents within their tree.

There is more to come! We've launched the Face tree with 16 ready-to-play Talents; 3 more are locked for now, to be released soon. And we're only ~5 weeks away from Cyber Knights' full launch (June 2nd!) which will add an all-new Origin Story option to the start of the game with a new Face starting character.

Come join us in the official Trese Brothers discord[discord.gg] to discuss build strategies for the Face, stay in the loop on launch fun, and more!

- Ensuring mission planning screen immediately refreshes after using Opposition Research
- Improved Dealmaker display so that its results are shown in the mission Leverages on the left side including all bonuses
- Fixed Dealmaker not always correctly adding +10% Influence to mission reward for Contact
- Fixed Hand-picked not always adding its full bonus to new recruit
- Dismissed or otherwise unavailable characters prevent use of loadout buttons

- Fixed issue with Face class tree nodes that increase Attributes not being correctly summed into Attributes
- Fixed Attribute names being correct in Face's main Trait (replacement Traits coming for the other 2)
- Fixed lots minor issues with Face Talent text
- Buffed Armors: StealthTekk Vest, GX-Mesh Jack
- New Armor Intrinsics: Action Points + Evasion


- Added new Face class tree with 16 talents to manipulate the underworld, safehouse and team
- Bring all new focus to advancing and catering to the Contacts you want to focus on
- Either enhance or remove the need for some Safehouse rooms with Face talents
- Fixed broken stairs in Slumroad Junction mission map
- Hidden incorrect "Blueprint Output Count" appearing on some Item Blueprints but doing nothing

Knights and mercs, we're landing with a morning update to dig deep on F10s and crush a bunch of "root causes" of hotly reported issues. This is a big patch fix including some key balance / signposting improvements around Talents and buff effects that will help the game play more smoothly and be more clear about what Talents are offering.

There were a number of Talents in the game that had an annoying habit of activating once and successfully working, but then being allowed to activate a second time in a Turn and eating your charge while failing to apply their Buff.

Think Skullshot - first time you shoot and kill you'd get +3 AP. Second time you shoot and kill, you'd waste the charge and get +0 AP.

With Update #238, we've addressed this Talent set by adding the once-a-turn rule to the end of their description and ensuring that they all stick to it. They will no longer activate in the case of passive Talents and once used, an active Talent like Skullshot will disable in your Talent bar.

This is not a nerf or buff - the rules are unchanged, but it is an important fix to make the rules clear and prevent the Talents from wasting charges (which is a buff lol). The following Talents have been updated:

• Steamroll
  
• Stopgap
  
• Savagery
  
• Run and Gun
  
• Recoup
  
• Synapse Short
  
• Overdrive
  
• Choppa
  
• Whisperkill
  
• Skullshot
  
• Quiet Kill
  
• Fleeting

What used to be described as "Pure Dmg Upgrade" for damage types has a new simpler buff text, which states something like "+25% of Ballistic Dmg as extra Pure Dmg." This type of effect relies on your Ballistic (or Kinetic) Damage and takes a percentage of that damage and adds it as extra Pure Dmg. This is really powerful boost, as you get to keep all of your regular damage and gain armor penetrating Pure at the same time.

it was confusing before, causing too many F10s and community chats. Hopefully this helps!

For some types of mission, where the primary form of payment is in the objective list - such as Infiltrate and Download, Lootbox Hunt, etc - these types of "secondary" payments were not being correctly modified by your Contact's Traits and Trust %. Now, you'll see those pay buffs cover the full gamut of payments you might receive, so those missions can feel more rewarding if you are working with a Generous Contact, etc.

For the appearance tab, we've extended the length of the name field if you are saving an appearance. We've also adjusted the zoom in rules to include facial hair - when you are picking a facial hair, you'll get a zoomed in look at it.

We fixed an issue that was causing the nouns for certain relationship tags to swap - son and daughter were flipped.

- Fixed multiple Talents that need a "activates once a Turn max" rule: Steamroll, Stopgap, Savagery, Run and Gun, Recoup, Synapse Short, Overdrive, Choppa, Whisperkill, Skullshot, Quiet Kill, Fleeting
- Improved effect description for Pure Dmg Upgrade, now stating "+25% of Ballistic Dmg as extra Pure Dmg"
- Contact Trust % and Contact Pay bonuses from Trait now correctly affect secondary objectives for $$
- Appearance display zooms in on character's face when picking facial hair
- Fixed issue with Brain Worm causing end of some enemy turns to hang
- Fixed issue with Slashslide where Talent names stuck around for next move order
- Fixed issue with some Trait/Tag text being swapped (son/daughter)
- Fixed issue with Talent.Name.-1 appearing sometimes in Hacker's Talent list mid mission
- Extended length of name field for Appearance saves to library