All right, sit down and buckle up - this omnibus Update #110 has a lot of things in it. We've been busy these last few days as we prepare for the release of Head Hunters major milestone. Let's check it - we've got Steam Deck improvements and fixes, balancing for economy and blueprints, better tactical thinking for enemies and better equipment for corp enemies, allowing Contacts to buy Blueprints at Power Level 4-6, sorted offers in buy/sell windows buy best price, and a lot, lot more.
Huge thanks goes out to all the players sending in F10s! We're processing, categorizing and fixing them quickly so please keep sharing your feedback.
And if you like the pace of development around here, please do leave a review :D
Steam Deck Improvements
If you are using the Steam Deck we're excited this patch goes out to you as it will fix your issue with the (Y) button sometimes getting stuck when trying to move a character. This is now fully fixed and with the latest update to the default configuration, you should be very good to go with the Steam Deck.
In addition, the latest round of changes to get Steam Deck compliance caused issues with Steam Deck and Steam Input. If you want to use the Steam Input layer with the Steam Deck, you can turn this back on in the options screen by "Unlock Steam Deck Inputs" - hopefully this works for everyone picking a non-standard gamepad configuration. Thanks to everyone for the F10s and your patience with us as we get this ironed out :D
Blueprints & Economy
There will be ongoing, very important work, to balance and tune the game's economy now that all the major parts are in play. Some of the changes may be a bit painful now but we have to look forward to a better balanced future and make these changes while we're in Early Access.
With Update #110, we've made the following adjustments:
Price of crafting a Blueprint has generally increased - some things are far more expensive while things like Items may be cheaper, depending on the item. Crafting level 6 Armors for $200K is too cheap (etc), this has been improved.
Price of selling Blueprints has generally increased - Blueprint prices now take into account the number of uses remaining in the Blueprint. Some things sell for less, but most sell for more. Those with 2 uses are going to sell for more and then drop half their value if you use 1/2.
Sorted Sell Offers
Whenever you are selling something, we've now nicely sorted the list for you so that the best offer is first - favors, if available, and then highest money offer next. If you're looking to sell fast and not make a lot of decisions, this will help you pick up the pace a little.
On this front, mult-buy and multi-sell are coming soon as well as a bulk sell option to really clean out your inventory and cold storage with very few clicks. Thanks for your patience as we continue to improve these key systems.
Upgrading Enemy Tactical Thoughts
With this update, we've improved how all enemies think about some of their short distance tactical repositions. On their turn, even if they have a valid target (like you!) they like to consider making a short run for a better position. This movement however was missing a critical limit - that it shouldn't cost them their attack! So, enemies will be a bit smarter, and move a bit less, once they are engaged in a proper fire fight with you, willing to shift positions to get better cover or an asymmetrical sight line but not shifting so much that they can't return fire that turn.
In addition, enemies who are "chasing" something - that is, need to move a long distance to reach something - are more determined about their pursuit. Too often, enemies in this state would "go for direct cover" and not go very far. Now expect to see more "Advancing!" and "Charging!" as enemies close the gap with more determination. You can imagine why we've ended up with this improvement as we test and prep the upcoming Head Hunters release!
Improved Corporate Equipment
The corporate security details just got a new flush of equipment starting around Power Level 4 and up. They've been equipped with a better curve of upgraded weapons and armor where before they would so rarely see an upgrade, expect them now to punch harder and take harder punches as you get into the upper half of the Power Level scales.
Better Scrolling / Scrollbars
Across the game we've made scrollbars clickable and selectable to use as a way to get faster navigation. Thanks to everyone putting in F10s about this, the latest solution addresses some of the auto-scrolling issues, lets controller players reach the bottom of all scroll areas with only text, and gives everyone a faster way to move up and down scroll areas.
Once we have some time for the new feature to settle and be tested, we'll work on improving their appearance a little more to integrate them into the UI more cleanly.
Fixed Crafting / Safehouse Issues
Thanks for all the F10s! In rapid fire - if you're buliding a NanoFab bench, you can now see what type. Level 5 Detox no longer misreports the Stress it will heal, we fixed flavor text on Command HQ to stop mentioning mission bonuses incorrectly.
If you're crafting, we fixed a mix up between SMG and AR optics and body intrinsics. Also, if you get a random booster Intrinsic, it will be shown in green when you're looking at the final weapon so it is more clear.
v1.8.13 - 7/16/2024
Steam Deck Improvements - Fixed bug where (Y) would suddenly stop responding to move a character - Added "Unlock Steam Deck Inputs" for Steam Deck to allow use of Steam Input system most effectively
- Improved AI tactical combat decisions - Improved AI's ability to run to a far away point of interest or enemy with more determination - Improved AI's calculation when in range to make an attack, not to make a short reposition that spends too many AP to attack - Corporate enemies better equipped with weapons and armor (PL 4-10) and better stat progression - Improved enemy armor progression for multiple types from Power Level 5+ - Favor value now displayed prominently in Contact's detail page - Fixed issue preventing Contacts with upgraded Blueprint purchasing services (1-6, etc) from not buying high level Blueprints - Price of selling Blueprints increased, price of crafting blueprints increased! - Sorted offers when selling things to Contact to put the best offer first - NanoFab now shows what type of bench it is building - Fixed issue with SimStream Detox level 5 not correctly showing Stress reduction - Name for random bonus Intrinsic mods added by crafting are now in green to stand out from regular - Fixed crafting weapon random bonus Intrinsics for SMG body mod and AR optics were switched incorrectly - Fixed issue that could occur equipping cyberdeck when you had 2 of the exact same type - Fixed attachment positions for Kaza Raildart - Fixed all scrollbars to be selectable, clickable and draggable - improved controller scroll to bottom of text only areas - Fixed bad flavor text about Command HQ saying it grants Mission payment bonuses - Fixing bugs with F10 window leaking input through during Matrix and Enemy Turn - Fixed typos, thanks for reports!
Update #109: After Heist Scatter!
We're keeping the forge hot here at Trese Brothers HQ with another update tonight! With so many major updates and expansions hitting over the last month, we're working on catching up with the mountain of F10s you all have lovingly submitted, so stay tuned, lots more polish, improvements both big and small and fixes are coming.
Update #109 has fixed the issue with equipping some Cyberdecks, rewritten the reinforcement placement rules for the better, fixed issues with the Security Escalation that could - at some times - skip Escalation altogether, improved the balance of Benders and Divergents so they have a smoother curve of progression, and fixed some amazing bugs reported by the community include a pretty old and nasty one with Extraction. So let's dig in!
Deck Equip / Unequip
Last night's update introduced an issue with equipping decks that is semi-random from game to game ... sometimes decks just won't equip! This is now fixed, our apologies.
Reinforcement Rules Update
Reinforcements are undeniably the worst kind of Security Escalation and so their exact placement and rules have a big impact of pacing, fairness, fun and believability of your heists. With Update #109 we've rewritten the rules used to calculate and pick from among the many possible reinforcement points within any given level.
The most visible change in this rules rewrite is to avoid ever dropping reinforcements into an active extraction area if you are close to it. The italics clause is key - if you're far away, like 25m+ then enemies may still appear there are make your day difficult. Perhaps you could re-route to another extraction point. But the days of running between a bewildered set of guards as you extract your team should be behind the game now.
We also fixed some lingering issues with the system that could lead to Escalation turns were no action was taken by the security AI.
Extraction Bug
Thanks to everyone submitting F10s about the extraction bug! If you extracted a character who was Bleeding Out, was poisoned, had any form of Damage Over Time or Healing over Time, then the next turn they could re-appear in a broken state inside the extraction box and cause some major havoc. Now fixed!
Bender and Divergent Curve Smoothing
We were excited to introduce some difficulty to take down enemies a few patches back, but we've revisited them with this update to use a new enemy templating and rule system that will help us build out enough depth in their enemy profile to support the type of scaling the game needs.
As Benders and DIvergents increase in Power Level themselves, all of their targets advanced through a progression of 6 Talent power levels, allowing the Bender to become more and more difficult to hit as you increase your team's power level. It's an exciting template we plan to be using on other enemies as we roll into the next waves of unique and different baddies.
Starting Wireghost Services
We've adjusted the Wireghost Contact's starting services to use Matrix Programs 2, down from Power Level 3. As we've added the Contact Limit Breaks, some of the services were artificially high due to their inability to change, so now we're evening out the new game to ensure that all of your Contact's have the right room to grow.
v1.8.11 - 7/12/2024
- Improve reinforcement spawning routines to be more fair & fun, avoid too-close extraction points - Improved Sec Escalation rules to fix issue where sometimes no card would be drawn - Improved Wireghost Contact starting services - sells Power Level 2 Programs at start instead of 3 - Improved balance and progression for Benders and Divergents (smoother ramp of +Evasion Talents) - Fixed bug with Extracted merc re-appearing after a turn if they were Bleeding Out or had DOT or HOT - Fixed bug preventing Hackers from equipping certain Cyberdecks randomly - Added missing description and powers description for Divergents enemy pop up - Fixed UltraTek bio-formula thief from being tagged as law-abiding in corp - Cleaned up incorrect stats for NanoFab in bottom right of Manage Room
Update #108: Slash Target
Knights, the streets might be quieting down for the night but an update chopper is about to land. Grab your weapons, we've got a heist to run! Tonight's Update #108 enables unequipping cyberdecks gracefully, fixes a longstanding bug with Cybersword's Slashslide, improves the Safehouse room details, starts the process of tuning and tweaking the 300 pieces of equipment just released for hacking makes another minor but important upgrade for Steam Deck. And you can zoom and rotate the camera while inspecting a Matrix terminal's connected devices!
Apologies about the second multi-GB update in a row ... the build box did a flip on this one. We aim to keep these below 1 GB as often as possible, but this one just came in super-sized.
Thanks to everyone playing, posting, sending in the F10s and especially for leaving a review! So much more good stuff is coming, so keep your ear to the ground for the next update chopper.
Remove Cyberdecks
To keep up with Soldiers (who can remove their guns and armor!), Hackers can now remove their cyberdecks. This can make swapping between Hackers or testing out an upgrade easier for your Hackers. But just like Soldiers, they will refuse to go on a mission if they are not equipped with a Deck, so don't do something silly like unequipping it and selling it.
Slashslide Targeting
We've fixed a bug with how the Cybersword's Slashslide Talent acquired targets. As a melee attack in which you move from target to target for your attacks, it does not matter if an enemy or character is blocking the line of sight from the original point of attack. However, the bug was requiring full line of sight (which is blocked by characters and enemies) to any target in Slashslide. This meant you could often line up the perfect slide line, hitting and hopefully killing 3 in one glorious instant ... only to discover the first one blocked the second and third and you got ... one lame attack. Now you'll get 3!
So, very, glad, to, fix, this. Rah rah, Zasha!
Safehouse Improvements
With Update #108, we've made so improvements to the safehouse room displays and details about each upgrade level. We've improved the rules for SimStream Detox so that its 3rd level has a clear benefit. We've also adjusted the display for the SimStream Detox room so that its Stress reduction is clearly stated now in its states.
We fixed a bug with the level displayed in room level displayed inside Cold Storage when browsing digital files, it was not the level shown when you're managing the room or at the main safehouse view. Now, its correct.
We also fixed a bug that could happen on the Timeline if a mission was at 4-6 hours remaining but there was another event at 0 hrs remaining. Thanks to everyone submitting F10s!
Fixing/Tweaking Crafted Weapons, Armor, Items!
With the addition of over 300 new pieces of equipment and consumable items to the game, there is going to be some clean-up and tuning work for little while here! Tonight we fixed an issue with HE Micro Grenades being identical to Micro Grenades - they both linked the same Talent and effect.
More will be coming as we pour over the equipment tables and get more reports from players. Again, thanks to every player who is playing and posting.
Rotate and Zoom Camera while Previewing Devices
From inside or outside of the matrix, if you're inspecting a terminals list of connected doors and security devices you can now zoom and rotate the camera with the regular controls. This is a big help since the automatic camera angles may not be what you want to see, or you may need additional context about enemies and characters nearby that you can only get by achieving a specific camera angle.
Thanks for every F10 about this!
Steam Deck and Controller Scene Transition
We've addressed a minor but important issue where immediately after the Steam Deck booted into the game, you would see mouse and keyboard keybinding glyphs. Once you touched the controller, you'd get the right glyphs but it was ugly there fore a minute.
In addition, we've improved handling between scene transitions for Steam Deck and controller. The game was previously always reverting to showing mouse and keyboard glyphs again whenever a scene was loaded but now we've fixed this to remember the last used input device and keep using those glyphs in the new scene.
v1.8.9 - 7/11/2024
- Hackers can unequip their cyberdecks for easier swaps or upgrades, but cannot go on mission without one - Fixed Slashslide unable to acquire target due to another enemy or player in the way - Fixed HE Micro Grenades not having special effect - Improved new game layout to show more of each character's backstory if space is available - Fixed bug with buying/selling where Contacts might be duplicated - Improved Safehouse SimStream Detox - now shows expected Stress relief and Level 3 was not clear about its bonus - When previewing security devices attached to a Matrix Terminal, you can now rotate the camera as usual - Improved scene transitions for Steam Deck and Controllers so that keybinding glyphs don't revert to keyboard/mouse - Corrected bug with Cold Storage showing the wrong room level when browsing digital goods - Improve game's ignoring of mouse and keyboard input when not focused on some platforms - Fixed icon shown in armor for movement speed to be the regular move speed icon - Fixed freezes that could occur on timeline
Update #107: Bullets In the Sky
Knights - meet at the command table in the HQ, its another update! Coming hot on the heels of major milestone NANOFAB we're pushing out Update #107 to with some very exciting UI polish for combat, better secondary objectives for blueprints and cubes, and a reset of controllers to default configuration. Sorry about that, an Early Access mistake on our part - please see below to read about the bug it fixes.
Thanks to everyone playing, posting and sharing with your friends! We're so excited to see everyone's crafting creations popping out of those Fabs. If you're enjoying the pace of updates and improvements and how your suggestions/ideas are landing in the game - please do leave a review.
Controller & Steam Deck Binding Reset
With Update #107, we've fixed a deep and very old bug in our configuration for our input system and controllers. It is the root cause of all the most reported bugs for controller at the moment - places where (B) stops actually canceling things or where pop-up windows have empty blue square for cancel and the keyboard binding for submit.
However, in order to fix this critical and ancient bug - we have been forced to reset your controller configurations to the default. Our apologies, we tried all other options, but this was the final results. If you are a keyboard and mouse player, you're unaffected - we've only reset controllers.
We hope you'll forgive us during Early Access this reset and we hope never to have to repeat it 🤞
Full Auto Bullet Pips
With Update #107, we've added a key factor to Full Auto the targeting UI. Every Full Auto weapons has a number of bullets that it will fire in this mode, ranging from 4 to 9. Each bullet rolls all of its Accuracy, Damage, Critical and Armor Shred individually (you can only Shred once per target, but it is more chances of getting that Shred!).
Bullets are allocated equally between targets and you can never fire more than 4 bullets at a single target. So - the UI is now updated to show yellow bullet icons over each target so it is really clear who is getting what. This also helps make the exact benefits or loss clear when increasing or reducing targets.
Overwatch Bullet Pips
In the same moment, we've added bullet pips overhead for any character or enemy who is using Overwatch. This is helpful for your own team, to know how many more shots you might have but it is key intel on a situation if you're pinned in an enemy Overwatch field. It's a bit peaking behind the curtain, but use the information well. If the enemy has a single shot, maybe you can risk taking an action but if they've got you pinned with 3 Overwatch shots ... consider your other options!
Blueprints and Cubes as Secondary Objectives
With Update #107, we've improved the balance and progression of secondary objectives that grant NBS Cubes and Blueprints. You'll find more variety of the offered rewards including a wider range of Rare, Epic and Legendary Blueprints and now also the option to offer Weapon Mod blueprints.
For NBS Cubes, the secondary objectives were previously limited to offering Blue Cubes which is nice but not as fun as sometimes offering Red and Gold as it now does.
Weigh your new secondary objectives well and make it happen, Knight!
Full Stats during Mission
We've added the full stat block including Initiative roll, AP, MP and your combined set of all effects to the mid-mission status window. Enjoy!
Fixed Bugs!
We also fixed a ton of other F10s you put in - so thank you! Weapons that had odd stocks, vertical grips and magazines appearing all over the place have been fixed. We flipped the sort for Newest equipment in your inventory, it was sorting the wrong direction. We've
v1.8.5 - 7/10/2024
- When targeting enemies with Full Auto, bullet pips are shown over each enemy to show exact spread of Full Auto Shots - When character or enemy is in Overwatch, number of remaining reaction shots is shown over character - Fixed Steam Deck and controller bugs with (B) not working and/or submit/cancel keybindings shown as empty blue squares - All Steam Deck and Controller bindings have been reset (one time, sorry!) - Added full breakdown of buffs, debuffs, Initiative, AP and MP from the roster to mid-mission status - Improved secondary objectives providing Blueprints to have more variation, Cube objectives to offer Blue/Red/Gold - Improved text and labels in SimStream Trainer to be more clear - Fixed issues with odd mod assembly - stocks, magazines, and foregrips all appearing in odd places - Fixed bug allowing teleportation on some door panels - Fixed incorrect level shown in Cold Storage room - Fixed Newest sort in inventory was flipped
Major Milestone "NANOFAB" - unlocks blueprint crafting in your Safehouse
For a long time, you've stolen shiny looking Blueprints on your heists into corporate territory. These manufacturing matrices are infused with printing nano, capable of being processed by a NanoForge - the giant nano-3D-printer of 2200s - to fabricate high technology devices to the molecular level. All you need is some Nano-Bearing Substrate Cubes - large plastic gallons filled with blue, red or gold pellets - to dump into your loud, power-hungry and nanite-dust-puking NanoFab.
With major milestone NANOFAB, we've unlocked a new Safehouse room that shares the name and grants the ability to craft your Blueprints into real live weapons, weapon mods, armor and items. And the loot tables are massively updated, pouring Blueprints and NBS Cubes into your heists - adding over 10 new items, 50 new Armors, 150 Weapon Mods and 50 new Weapons through Blueprints for the mid-to-late game.
Our Early Access roadmap is on fire 🔥🔥🔥 ... Head Hunters are next! 🔥🔥🔥 If you like the pace of updates and improvements and the continued expansion of the game, please leave a review!
NanoFab Room
NanoFab crafting is not cheap or easy and most Knights will not start on it early in their career. Powerful blueprints are hard to find, you need a steady supply of NBS cubes and all of this costs credits. But once you've got a few million under your belt and you're ready, convert one of those toxic waste dumps in your Safehouse into a shiny new NanoFab.
For those Knights riding the edge for long and dangerous careers in the NBZ, the proc-gen mission system and the NanoFab crafting system mix together to help extend the fun, depth and options of your career. The extended ramp of your own equipment power will allow us to further extend the difficulty ramp on missions in the future and redefine what perfecting your team means with late-game gear.
Ongoing Balance and Contact Services
NanoFab crafting is a major new feature we're excited to splashdown in the New Boston zone. If you look at the continuum of equipment in the game, your Contacts and their services start at the bottom with Power Level 1 and 2 services and can currently stretch up to Power Level 4. Blueprint crafting picks up around Power Level 3 and can stretch to Power Level 6.
There is a lot of ongoing balance work to ensure that the two systems stretch together and each stays relevant through the right part of the game. Our work is not done here, it is just starting. Crafting is a big weight on one side of the scale that will - for a time - throw things off balance. We'll be making some big steps to bring the city back into balance over the next month as Contacts expand service offerings, can Limit Break into new services altogether and more stories are added that help them expand and alter their offerings to keep up with new Blueprint goodness.
Craft 'em
Each NanoFab can support up to 5 crafting benches once fully upgraded. Each bench can perform a single crafting operation and is built by type - Weapon, Weapon Mod, Armor and Item. Once your bench is constructed, you can start to create your equipment with the Blueprint, money and NBS Cubes required.
Each type of crafting allows for some different rules, and some allow for supplemental blueprints to be added:
Item and Weapon Mod crafting are the simplest. You need money, Cubes and the Blueprints and each crafting run produces a clean result of the equipment.
For Armor, you can use a supplemental Blueprint - a second Armor Blueprint - to merge the nanoproperties of the armors together to create unique and powerful combinations, push Evasion bonuses onto Heavy Armor, push HP bonuses on to Stealth armor and more. In addition, using Gold Cubes in crafting increases the chance that a random Intrinsic booster effect will be crafted into the Armor, making it even more resilient.
Weapons are the most complicated of crafts. You can craft a weapon blueprint without any supplements, or you can include up to 4 supplemental blueprints. You may include blueprints for real Weapon Mod Blueprints (like a Sniper Rifle Scope) which become fused to the weapon permanently (can never detach) but grant a chance of rolling a random Intrinsic booster effect for each Weapon Mod fused. Or you can supplement with a new type of Intrinsic Blueprint you will find out on your heists that just adds to the weapon's stats without fusing to any slot but lacks the extra roll for an Intrinsic booster.
We've included helpful instructions below the crafting plan screen for each type individually to guide your crafting adventures and we're excited to hear your feedback!
Or Sell 'em
Over the last few updates, we've buffed up the ranks of Contacts interested in buying your blueprints, so if you aren't ready or don't want to craft a blueprint, sell it! You won't make extra money crafting a blueprint to get the real item and then selling the real item; you're better off selling the blueprint.
Improved Matrix Balance
With this update, we're continuing to address issues with how the Matrix Q-Sec selects its Escalations. We found and fixed a bug that was feeding the Q-Sec Tally (a large number, like 25) into the selection process, and was therefore ignoring all the cards that shouldn't execute below a certain Q-Sec Level (like 4). Anyway - the result is good, Q-Sec Escalation actions like Wake Global IC no longer appear before Q-Sec Level 4, and about 50% of the Q-Sec Escalations only turn on as you progress through Q-Sec 1-3.
We've also made a minor adjustment to the HP for IC at higher Power Levels. This won't be a huge change for your hackers, but HP has been reduced 10-20% as the IC ramp up to Power Level 10.
As always, please let us know what you think!
Improved Enemy Talents
Enemy types - as in: distinct, cool and functionally different - hinge massively on their Talents and equipment choices. As we march into summer we are working on a wide variety of new enemy capabilities and types for the game.
With this update we've added new Talents to allow enemies to heal themselves and repair their own armor. This can help put pressure on taking out tough enemies, who if you don't finish off quickly or take them down by surprise, may get themselves back on their feet with a medkit or a patch kit.
Some enemy corporate captains, Brave Star captains and some of Brave Star's infantry drones have these healing and patching capabilities. So don't waste time when taking out these leaders; their high armor and HP values make them difficult to bring down already but now they are even more of a priority target.
Improved Timeline Stopping
We've fixed some issues with how the timeline might stop if there are interrupting events. This should prevent things like a dialog and a Hype Limit Break from appearing at the same time. It also fixes an issue where sometimes a mission wouldn't warn that it was about to expire if it was in a certain configuration or timeline events, or another mission had recently warned.
v1.8.1 - 7/8/2024
- New Safehouse Room NanoFab allows creation of up to 5 crafting benches - Crafting benches take Blueprint, money and NBS Cubes to create resulting item - Combine Blueprints from Weapons and Weapon Mods or multiple Armors to create completely unique results - Added over 300 new items, weapons, mods and armors to the game via Blueprints - Blueprints range from Power Level 1 to 6; Contact services will be expanding to catch up soon - Improved Talents for corporate captains, corporate infantry drones, Brave Star faction - Some enemies now capable of using medkits to heal themselves, others using Patch-X kits to restore Armor Protection - Fixed Matrix Q-Sec Escalations were not using their minimum Q-Sec Level limits correctly; Global IC now only appears at 4+ - Small adjustment for balance for high Power Level IC, reduced their HP by 10-20% - Improved Safehouse timeline timing and pausing around pop-up events; preventing Dialog and Limit Breaks at the same time - Fixed issue with Safehouse timeline mission expiration warnings not always working - Fixed formatting issues with over use of "When Matrix Hacking," in class tree and other places
Update #105: Bristling Armory
The New Boston streets are buzzing with rumors of updates, rumors of new bristling weaponry and mods, rumors of new UX improvements, rumors of more! With today's update, we've made some exciting balance changes to Contact Limit Breaks, rolled out 3 new service upgrades for Gun Runners, added 2 new Contact Types that purchase Item Blueprints and completed a series of UX upgrades and Steam Deck improvements to help everyone using floor Talents, inspecting matrix terminals or checking the pause menu for keybindings.
Thank you all for playing, posting and leaving a review! We're a very small studio working hard to polish and improve the game as much as possible in this Early Access - so please consider taking a moment to share our work with other gamers by clicking Review!
Contact Limit Breaks: Go for Services!
We've made a big balance chance to how Contact Limit Breaks picks what to upgrade. Too often, the Limit Break would end up with a less exciting upgrade which simply wasn't as fun or exciting. Now we've pushed the weighting to be more in favor of taking Service Upgrades if they are available. If a Gun Runner can upgrade with their Influence to sell you better guns, then they are going to be significantly more eager to pick that choice from the weighted table. They still have their other options - Traits and temporary Traits - and more will be coming online too, but prioritizing service upgrades can really help ensure that you're getting more actionable Limit Breaks for your Contacts early on.
We've also fixed a bug with how the Contacts were drawn for Limit Breaks. They were always being pulled in the same order, basically sorted by their age, and the young ones were always picked first if they had a break. This led to some Contacts who were even created during new game sort of being stuck "at the end of the line" ... looking at you, Potato :eyes:.
Gun Runner Service Upgrades
To pair with the improvement to Limit Breaks focusing on services, we've added 3 new service upgrades with Update #105:
Gun Runners can upgrade their Street Guns service up to level 4, which adds 8 total new weapons at Power Level 4 across the spectrum of types.
Gun Runners can also upgrade their Weapon Mod service to Power Level 3 which adds 7 new mods, focusing on ARs, Snipers, Blades and with one for Shotguns.
Imported Weaponry from your Warner-Braun connected Gun Runner can upgrade to Level 4, at which time, you'll be offered a new Blade and new Assault Rifle in addition to what was already there.
More Blueprint Buyers
We've further expanded the options for selling Blueprints - with Dopers and Bio-Tech Researchers joining the pool that is now interested in purchasing Item Blueprints. This should cover a wider range fo groups that have different starting characters or made different story choices so far.
Floor Talent Clarity
Talents that target a specific location on the floor - like Lure, Glitch, Slashslide and Overwatch - have long lacked the standard display for Talents within the game. We've adjusted that with this update to include the AP bar (so you know you're spending 0, 1, or 2 AP, etc) as well as the keybinding hint (click for desktops or (Y) as default for controllers). This is a big help especially for players new to the game to understand how this class of Talent is used compared to others, and even more helpful for controllers.
Photo Mode Remembers
Photo mode now correctly remembers the last location and exact rotation between uses. So, if you hit (P) and setup the perfect shot, you can hit ESC - either by accident or because you want to go back to playing - without losing "your shot." Hit (P) again and the photo mode will resume exactly where you had set it up before.
Control Scheme & Steam Deck Improvements
With Update #105, we've fixed an issue where (A) or (spacebar) was being used to trigger terminal inspection. This didn't cross very well with planning and executing a movement to the terminal as you might trigger inspection by accidentally hovering over it. We've switched this to (H) or (right-stick click) which is usually Toggle Outlines, but in the context of hover over a terminal, triggers inspection.
Steam Deck Updates
For Steam Deck and controllers, we've also improved the transition from one scheme to the other by only showing the controls that are bound in the game's pause menu. We've also tuned up the detection of the switch to be faster and more accurate. We're still working on situations where it can get stuck in one mode or another but this is a marked improvement.
We've also hidden the controller white dots cursor whenever a window comes up and fixed a bug where playing with a mouse and Edge Scrolling on didn't work great when swapping to a controller.
Simstream Token Display
The Simstream Trainer gathers tokens to allow you to respec your crew. If you're using them, then knowing when they are ready or sitting idle is important. The Simstream Trainer had missed having the token display added but now that is fixed. Thanks to the community for the F10s on this!
v1.7.21 - 7/5/2024
- Big increase in weighting to pick Service upgrades whenever available for Contact Limit Breaks - Improved sequencing of Contact Limit Breaks - some Contacts were stuck waiting in line - Gun Runners can further upgrade Weapon Mod service to PL 3, adding 7 new mods across AR, Sniper, Blade, Shotgun - Gun Runners can further upgrade Weapon service to PL 4, adding 8 new weapons across types - Improved W-B Imported Weaponry service upgrade to include new AR and Blade at PL 4 - Additional Contacts - Dopers and Bio-Tech Researchers - are interested in buying Item Blueprints - Added missing AP bar and keybinding hint for Talents that target floor - Lure, Overwatch, Slashslide, etc - Added token tag for Simstream Trainer to show its token generation - Improved keyboard bindings for renaming / text box windows - now correctly ENTER to save - Improved photo mode - remembers that last position, rotation and restores it when toggling in with (P) - Correctly refreshed right side of inventory/market if you sold the last item - Fixed bug with some filters and sorts (highest level gear) if you started removing weapons/armor - Fixed issues with mouse cursor + edge scroll when using a controller
Update #104: Triage Me!
The New Boston zone truly never sleeps - utterly covered in the protective dome, its day and night cycles are primarily simulated and controlled district-by-district. So, it's always Update Time somewhere! With tonight's update we have a new room in the safehouse (aha, sweet competition for space!), improved value of Contact Trust, another round of polish for the Steam Deck experience, and a rapid fix for suddenly disappearing DisplayLink cybernetics.
Thanks to everyone playing, posting and leaving a review! We're a small studio, so please consider taking a moment to share our work with other gamers by clicking Review!
New Safehouse Room: Triage Clinic
The Triage Clinic is a boon for merc squads that like to go loud, always find the heist ending in a fire fight or just love hunting for those battle striker missions. Whoever comes home shot up and bloody goes straight into the triage clinic, and while it is not medical ward at one of your Street Docs or Corp Splicer's clinic, immediate treatment and stabilization can help both reduce Injury Time and increase the chance of resisting long-lasting Wounds from developing.
The starting Triage Clinic reduces Injury Time by 25% and grants a +10% Wound Res to all rolls to resist wounds at the end of a mission.
Trusty Favors
As we continue to push on the strategy layer and your Contact connections, we've boosted the value that Trust has on your Contacts favors, nearly doubling it. Work with those you Trust and when they do something nice for you, it will be bigger and there will be more cred in it for you.
Steam Deck Improvements
With this update we've improved how the (X) button is handled in the matrix to make a more clear and useful loop between the parts of the HUD. Also, we fixed an issue when using (X) that would cause the currently active element to get stuck if the first Talent in your list was disabled. Now it will skip to the first enabled Talent or just skip Talents altogether and jump to End Turn.
Disappearing DisplayLink
With the last update, we accidentally made all DisplayLink cybernetics disappear. They have returned! Sorry for the short and sudden removal ... I bet that hurt. Here, want them back? That might hurt too!
Other UI Bugs
We've also fixed a number of minor UI issues reported with F10s - places where clicking with a mouse wasn't working in the dialog screens and places where the UI was overlapping in victory screens.
Also, upgrading Agent EX White Noise Talent no longer benefits Marker Sights (what?!)
v1.7.19 - 7/3/2024
- New safehouse room - Triage Clinic can reduce Injury Time and adds Wound Res for all mercs returning from missions - Doubled the effect of Trust % for Contacts on the value of their Favors - Fixed bug where all DisplayLink cybernetics suddenly disappeared - Fixed issue with Agent EX White Noise upgrades increasing Soldier's Marker Sights duration - Fixed overlapping UI issues in victory screens when merc earns codename - Fixed issue where clicking on some buttons in dialog, legwork selection would not select (had to use key)
Steam Deck Improvements - Improved use of (X) key to jump between HUD sections in the matrix - Fixed issue where using (X) would get stuck if the first Talent in your list was disabled
Update #103: Flash Sale those Blueprints
It's late night on the New Boston streets and things are quiet - until the update hover truck drops in. Roaring engines, new improvements, more level points for you! and you! and you! - plus Blueprints can now be sold widely, more Contacts are buying accounts, service maximums are more clear, better Matrix Escalation balance, you can detach mods again (woops!) and another big round of Steam Deck improvements. You know - just another New Boston day, another big update!
If you're enjoying the pace of improvement and how we do things over here at Trese Brothers, please leave a review. We are a small team, working hard for your reviews - if you like it, review it!
Steam Deck Progress
We plan to have continual Steam Deck progress for a while here, angling toward a better control scheme. Update #103 is taking a big step forward with resetting the default controller bindings to be more immediately playable and easy to use.
Swapped Set Movement Destination to (Y) - it is easier to find and you can hold it down and drag your movement destination around by panning the camera.
Swapped Toggle Highlights to (Right Stick Click) and added Decrease Full Auto Targets to (Left Stick Click) so you can control the Full Auto targets directly
Fixed issue with (RT) being required to open Leverage and Item lists in HUD, use default select (A)
Improved ability to preview terminal's security devices - center cursor plus (RT) to inspect
These changes are coming right out of the group chatting on our Discord in the Steam Deck Blitz thread and aren't likely to be the final changes, but please let us know how these changes feel and what else we can do to improve or if you found bugs, let's get them fixed on your Deck!
In order to use the latest default controller bindings - go to Options > Keybindings - Missions > Reset Defaults.
Better Level Point Progression
Bonus! You get extra Level Points today for all your characters who have at least reached level 10! We've improved the curve, smoothing out a minor oddity at level 9 & 10, and then added an extra +1 Level Point for every 5 levels achieved. So, that's extra points at 10, 15, 20 and 25 - adding up to +4 Level Points for max'd out characters.
Blueprints for Sale!
Blueprints have not been mature enough for a long time to really go up for sale, but as we are narrowing in on the upcoming crafting release, the time has come. Now a variety of Contacts can purchase Blueprints, limited by Type and Power Level. Contacts like Gun Runners will be interested in buying your Weapon and Weapon Mod Blueprints, while Corporate Researchers others will want to get a hold of your Item Blueprints.
Most Contacts start being able to purchase Blueprints up to Power Level 3 and will need further Limit Breaks to upgrade their services to purchase higher level and even more valuable Blueprints. Â
Better Service Listing
With Update #103, we've improved the display of Contact Service's list to be more clear when a Contact has maxed out a service. With the addition of Influence Limit Breaks being able to raise a service's level and trigger the sale of new weapons, armor, items, implants (etc) this is key to help further identify Contacts you want to focus on helping, selling to and supporting.
Maxed out Services are highlighted in yellow.
More Account Interest
More Contact types are now interested in purchasing Accounts from you, giving you the option to feed more Influence to them. For Contact types like Street Doc, Dopers, Gang Bosses, it is now easier to raise their Influence with high Rarity Account sales, but check their specific services for what they are seeking and keep an eye out for matching missions. For example, your Street Docs can make use of Street Accounts - those from Gangs - so, consider extra time and effort to plunder and hack on missions running up against gangs if you're trying to push your Street Docs up to Cybernetic Implants level 3.
Matrix Escalation Rebalance
As we continue to improve the matrix - and especially tune its balance for high Power Levels - we've made some changes with Update #103 that should help make the late-game matrix play more interesting and offer some more strategies.
First, we've adjusted how the Wake All IC Q-Security Escalation was weighted and drawn. It was used as a backup for a number of other cards that might not apply, causing it to be drawn far more often than it should be. It has now been pushed back to a realistic weighting among all the other options and should occur significantly less frequently, especially on nodes where the are already 3+ IC.
Secondly, we've adjusted the weighting of other Q-Security Escalation options, including to punch up the 3 types of lethal feedback the host can dish out - to your Hacker's HP, your deck and your Connection %. For your Hackers HP, the hits can now also come with a lot more bite, ranging from 10 to 30 Damage on the most deadly hosts - and then reduced by half your Deck Armor directly (8 Deck Armor = 4 HP saved).
Detach Mods
For a minute there, the ability to remove mods from weapons was completely gone. We've fixed this, bringing it back!
v1.7.17 - 7/2/2024
- Improved level points curve, +2 pts at checkpoints 10, 15, 20, 25 and smoothed out odd bump at level 9/10 and - New Contacts willing to buy Blueprints by type - Gun Runners buy Weapon Blueprints, Researchers buy Item Blueprints and more - More Contacts willing to buy Accounts (Street/Syndicate/Corporate): Street Docs, Dopers, Gang Bosses, Detectives, Sector Commander - Wider range of Contacts can boost Influence with high Rarity Account sales to drive Limit Breaks - Contact Services are now highlighted in Yellow if they cannot be upgraded further by Limit Breaks - Matrix balance improvements - adjusted weighting of Matrix Escalations (more Dmg responses, less Global Wake IC) - Matrix lethal feedback escalation can cause meaningful amounts of HP loss (10-30 HP, less 50% Deck Armor) - Fixing bug preventing from detaching mods from weapons - Prevent special effects (+5% Legwork for all mercs) from appearing in buffs and debuffs list - Fixed Mintable Attack III (FAS) program to have Program Rating 7
Steam Deck Improvements - Improved Steam Deck default controller config - use Options > Keybindings > Reset Defaults - Moved Set Movement Destination to (Y) - easier to find and hold down to drag your movement destination - Moved Toggle Highlights to (Right Stick Click), Decrease Full Auto Targets to (Left Stick Click) - Fixed issue with (RT) being required to open Leverage and Item lists in HUD, use default select (A) - Improved ability to preview terminal's security devices - center cursor plus (RT) to inspect
Update #102: Snap the Shot
A new update is hitting the streets of New Boston to go with the 34% off Summer Sale event! We've got big improvements to photo mode to help you capture awesome screenshots, better treatment for Glitch and Slashslide to give you info about your movement destination, the ability to unequip weapons and armor (yes, finally), improvements for Steam Deck coming directly from our deck players right now, and a clear lock / placeholder message for the 3 Talents that aren't done - Taunt, Preempt and Stemlocker (yes, finally).
Thanks to everyone posting feedback, playing and leaving a review! We're a small, hard-working team who lives by your feedback and reviews so please help us out and spread the word!
Enhanced Photo Mode
We snuck in another big step toward completing the Enhanced Photo Mode roadmap item with this release. There are a few more slaps of icing to put on this cake and then we'll be done with it.
With the updated photo mode, now whenever you engage photo mode (default P) all the UI will be hidden. In addition, by holding down right click (by default) to rotate your camera with the mouse, you can now rotate vertically and horizontally to get cool new angles of your characters and team. By coming freely pan, full rotation and zooming you can get some new and awesome angles, checking everything out down on the ground floor or from directly overhead.
We're excited this will let us all snag cooler screenshots of the game - but let us know what else you'd like to see.
Improved Slashslide and Glitch
Slashslide and Glitch took a big step forward in this update, being treated more like movement now. As you consider the targeting for either of these Talents, the numbers for your weapons in the bottom left corner - how many could I attack from this new position, how many would hear that attack? - are updated live. This is the first step to getting these Talents respected as movement, the next will be to get all the sightlines added as if you were moving.
Then we'll be fixing the lingering issue with Slashslide and line of sight.
Unequip Weapons, Armor, Items
We've finally added the basic feature to let you unequip weapons, armor and items. You can now remove these in order to give them to another merc without needing to have an extra to facilitate the swap.
If a merc is not carrying 2 weapons and wearing armor, they will refuse to go on a heist.
Steam Deck & Controller
After the big GENESIS update, we're continuing to put pressure on improving Steam Deck as we head back toward a re-verification with Steam. We've got some work to do still but things are running so much better on the deck now. We're also luck to have a good group of players sharing feedback in our Discord and helping us know what our next steps are - join in on the Steam Deck Blitz forum thread on Discord if you have ideas!
With this update, we've improved the organization and exactly what is listed in the game's pause menu for key bindings, providing extra helpful items for controllers. Previously, important items like setting a movement destination were just not shown (:facepalm:)
We also fixed both Leverages and Items to use the standard accept binding (A) to activate the selected item. Players have been helping us hone in on places where the key required for actions are not consistent (especially with (A) and (RT) atm) and we're going to keep hammering these until its smooth.
We also fixed a big bug that prevented the safehouse rooms from rendering properly on smaller screens, including the Steam Deck.
Placeholder Talents
We've finally given clear labeling and locked the 3 placeholder Talents in the game -- Hacker's Stemlocker, Vanguard's Taunt and Cybersword's Preempt. Sorry for all the confusion, we should have done this earlier.
v1.7.15 - 7/1/2024
- Upgraded Photo Mode (P) now use right click to rotate vertically and horizontally while panning/zooming - Improved Talents Glitch and Slashslide - when targeting the bottom left counts for attack/hear update - Adjusted balance of Ex-Detectives Lasting Injuries Trait, removed +5% Stress Res - Improved Dockyard Smuggler's Handshaker Trait with +5% Kinetic Pure Dmg Upgrade - Can now unequip weapons, armor and items from players for easier swapping - Fixed selection/click handling issue in class training tree with upgrade nodes - Fixed bug where player might have incorrect red sight lines (enemy will see you!) drawn at start of level - Correctly locked and updated text for the 3 placeholder Talents - Taunt, Stemlock and Preempt
Steam Deck and Controller Improvements - Improved keybinding/controller binding list shown in game menu to include everything more clearly - Section covers movement actions (set (R stick-click) / accept movement destination (RT)) and Select Talent List (X) - Swapped the accept button in the HUD Backpack to use an item to (A) - Fixed issues with Safehouse room rendering on smaller screens like Steam Deck
Update #101: Dial It In
We've got Update #101 tonight landing in the New Boston zone, following up on the GENESIS update. We're soaking up community feedback through the forums, Discord and F10s and excited to keep updating and improving rapidly through Early Access. Please keep sharing with us - you're the engine that drives us to improve and improve again.
As usual, after a big roadmap update, we need a few polish updates, so tonight Update #101 improves the Legwork system, some minor tweaks to Haven Smokeout, fixes New Game V2 bugs and a ton of fixes to issues and feedback posted by the community.
If you're enjoying the pace of updates, the 5 major milestones we hit in June and playing the game, please remember to post up a review.
Haven Smokeout Adjustments
Thanks to all the players posting up feedback on Haven Smokeout mission, we've made adjustments to the map and reinforcement rules. In addition, we've adjusted the secondary objective for the mission to be within 15 Turns instead of 12 Turns, giving everyone a little more breathing room. Let us know how your heists go and how the adjustments play out.
Legwork Team Visibility
With Update #101, we've improved the Legwork system to be much clearer about what mercs are eligible for the legwork based on their backstory, traits, and skills. The upgrade shows all mercs who are eligible for the legwork but then disables them if they are Injured, just a Recruit, in the Simstream Detox or Trainer, getting Medical Treatment, committed to another Legwork or Injured. All of these mercs are now shown but unavailable for selection, which takes a lot of the mystery about why you may have less mercs ready for the Legwork than you expected.
Better Cold Storage Tabs
With Update #101, we've redone the icons for the digital good types in Cold Storage and re-ordered them as well - now Accounts, Blueprints, Files and File Sets. This helps to move sets out to the end, get the icons to be far more visually readable and distinct.
Cybersword Adaptive Restruct
We've fixed a minor issue with Cybersword's Adaptive Restruct Talent not costing 1 AP to use. Now, bringing your Armor back up a Protection Point will cost you 1 AP, unless you further upgrade the Talent.
New Game Talents Tab
We fixed a bug with the new game Talents tab - once you opened the Face's page, all of the other characters had their Talents tab locked. Fixed.
Fixed Other Bugs
Thanks to everyone posting F10s, we've fixed a ton of typos, small issues and other small bugs.
v1.7.13 - 6/29/2024
- Haven Smokeout, secondary objective extended to 15 Turns (from 12) - Improved Legwork offering to show all eligible characters, even if they can't (cyber surgery, detox, treatment, etc) - New icons and new order for the tabs in Cold Storage (Accounts, Blueprints, Files, File Sets) - Fixed Cybersword Talent Adaptive Restruct to cost 1 AP to use by default - Fixed bug with Ex-Detective Backstory for your Knight causing them to be invisible, speak as "Unknown" - Fixed bug in new game that made the View Talents tab disabled after viewing the Face - Fixed issue with Battle Strike missions ending early if you killed all enemies very quickly - Fixed reported typos in dialog and new game - Fixed some odd floating objects in safehouse rooms 3D - Fixed odd bug with non-existent Contact in the list
