Update #87 continues to press on community F10s, quality of life requests and bug reports. We've got some major things cooking back at HQ and some milestone items coming up, but for now we're making sure everything in the latest massive base building update is working as it should be. We've fixed a number of issues, improved the matrix to prep for the tutorial and made some much needed changes to the UI pattern in dialog to ensure that confirm-is-confirm.

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As we are still working on getting everything ready and done for the proper in-game Matrix Tutorial, we've taken a moment to record a brief and focused YouTube tutorial for anyone looking for help here.

Learn to hack to drop the alarm level, control security devices, get valuable paydata, and complete CPU spike missions.

With Update #87, we've fixed the longstanding issue where TAB was by default used to advance dialog instead of the regular UI confirmation, spacebar. This issue stemmed from the regular concern over controller and keyboard players hitting space rapidly and accidentally selecting the first dialog option without realizing it in a rush of mashing buttons. To address this, we've moved the selection for keyboard and controllers to a prompt above the choices - so, hit (A) or (space) to advance the dialog and when a choice comes, you can't make a choice until you use your D-pad or arrow keys to navigate down.
In the same vein, there is a dead spot on the screen that refuses to accept "click to advance" clicks during dialogs. This area is the area where the choices will appear and is there to prevent you from spamming clicks into an area where dialog choices are going to be shortly, and then accidentally mashing your way through a choice. The dead zone is now highlighted in a darker color to make it clear so you can click elsewhere.

We've also added an attribution arrow to the last line of shown dialog to help it be more clear as the speaker jumps back and forth between sides.

We've improved the hacker's details in the top left of the matrix HUD with Update #87. This includes breaking out Cyberdeck Shield and Cyberdeck Armor to give them their own own icons, hovers and space above the 3 health bars for your hacker (HP, Cyberdeck, Connection Health).

We've also added a set of new hovers to cover these re-organized fields.
If you were using the Field Ops or Hacking Station rooms in your safehouse to gain additional leverages, you might have found that a few of them were not working as advertised. In some cases, they were but were giving no indication to the player. Regardless, we've fixed the lot of them, including Pemex Doubler, RIPR DX and Bespoke Deck Armor.

We've also fixed an issue where the passive on-first-turn type of Leverages were not being shown in the Command HQ when you returned there to finish your mission planning. This was making them feel even less likely to be useful.

Please F10 any additional issues you have, but we're seeing the whole set working and displaying better now.

The Legwork Hustle Up capability of the Underworld Hub in your Safehouse was not working. A math error with rounding things off to whole numbers snuck in near the end of testing and set everything back to the same duration it had before! This is now fixed.

We are working on better feedback for using tokens, but the first priority is to crush any bugs in the actual mechanical parts before getting some dialog in there from the Face.

We fixed a bug that was sometimes causing IO buffs from Programs or Talents to be counted twice or to reapply on the following turn. IO is so important and comes from many sources - your deck, your cybernetics, your Talents and your programs - so getting every point counts.

We fixed an old bug that could cause the click to target an enemy to instantly cancel the attack targeting. In this case, the target circle would flash on screen and then disappear. This is now resolved, hurrah!

- Improved dialog and story choice display - confirm (spacebar by default), attribution arrow, smooth scrolling
- Improved Hacker HUD in the top left corner to show Cyberdeck Shield and Armor separately
- Fixed reported issues with Safehouse-driven Leverages
- Improved Command HQ's mission planning by showing Passive Leverages on a mission
- Fixed RIPR DX, Pemex Memory Doubler
- Fixed issues with matrix Armor buffs like Bespoke Deck Armor not reducing damage correctly
- Fixed issue with IO Speed buffs sometimes being double-applied
- Fixed issue with Underworld Hub not correctly reducing Legwork duration
- Fixed issue that could cause game to ignore clicks on enemy targets or immediately cancel targeting

Down in the Belly under the New Boston Dome, Update #86 has touched down. We've got a lot of exciting new things with this one - new bonuses for the Tech attribute, improved display for APU/CPU spiking, new milsec items you can purchase, all the Hybrid-Utility programs can now be installed and used and more. Let's dig into the details!

We're busy with Early Access - lots of updates, lots of milestones coming up quick. We hope you are enjoying the pace of fixes, improvements, hotfixes and new content. If so, please take a moment to leave a review of any length - every one helps! And remember, you can always edit your review at any time.
 
The Tech Attribute has gained a big (needed) boost for Hackers, now adding Matrix-specific bonuses. If you have the Hacker class (as your primary or multi-classed) you will gain +1 Matrix AP per 1 Tech and +1 Cyberdeck Armor per 5 Tech, which protects both the Hacker and the cyberdeck. This makes the choice to go after extra Tech points in different class trees more interesting and firmly pushes Tech into the realm of being the Hacker's key stat.
In Update #85, we fixed all the issues that were nagging Hybrid-Utility programs and now we've rolled out a new set of Program Ratings that allow some of them to be used in existing decks. So, check the new Ratings and consider juggling some of your programs around to make space for these new biggies - they're powerful and interesting options in your digital kit.

The different MilSec and Brave Star contacts you can connect with throughout the game now (once again) have more unique offers for consumable items that they can sell, including Dazzlers and Concussion Grenades. This opens up some new angles for building out your item load out, so check out what you might want to swap around.

While APU and CPU spiking have been working correctly for about a month, they were lacking any helpful UI support to indicate what they had done. This has been causing a ton of F10s and confusing players, as it simply seems like they don't do what they promise or what is reported in the logs.

The big Sec Level or Q-Sec Level value in the HUD will now immediately react to an APU or CPU Spike. It will gray out indicating that it is below the real level of the Sec Level and no Escalations will occur until the Sec Level exceeds the old Sec Level. For example, if your Q-Sec Level is 8 and you Spike the CPU, then the Q-Sec Level will drop to 6 and the Matrix Host can't take an Escalation action until the Q-Sec Level reaches 9.

This is also all shown in the hover over the grayed out Sec Level, so check that out too for specifics once you see it in game.

As we've mentioned, we're hard at work on the matrix tutorial now. In order to make it the best it can be, we're sprucing up the matrix in general. With this update, we've added and improved a number of hovers through the Matrix screen - especially around the Q-Sec Level in the top right and all the deck details in the bottom left (IO, Active Mem, Storage).

We hope it's helpful!

As we build out the full progression of armor and weapons for the game, we've adjusted some of the early game armors to have a bit lower protection ratings. These have dropped anywhere from 2% to 5% for some armors, especially Power Level 1 armors. Take a check through your gear and see if you want to upgrade today.

We've also simplified the armor categories in this update, crushing everything down to Light, Heavy and Stealth. There will be distinct groups within those based on stats and styles, but they don't each need their own high level category in the filter.

We resolved an issue where the Contacts you gained through a V-Chip were not appearing in the initial conversation. While everything else was functioning correctly, this made them harder to track down in your list of Contacts and to recognize them as they appear in the newly offered services.



- Improved Tech attribute - for hackers now grant +1 Matrix AP per 1 Tech and +1 Cyberdeck Armor per 5 Tech
- Adjusted Hybrid-Utility program ratings to work with existing decks available in the underworld
- Improved Sec Level UI response to spiking CPU or APU to gray out Sec Level when an escalation will be skipped
- Improved Sec Level hover to include exact details of when Escalations will resume for spiked CPU or APU
- Improved hovers in matrix for IO, Deck Storage, Q-Sec Level
- Down balance on starting armors, dropping 2% to 5% protection - consider upgrading your armor
- Simplified Armor category filters (Light, Stealth, Heavy)
- Fixed issue with missing milsec items for sale from Milsec and Brave Star Contacts
- Fixed bugs with V-Chips having conversations where the new contact did not show up and name was blank