A day late and a dollar short might get you shot below the streets of the New Boston Zone but we’re hoping it doesn't come to that :D We’ve wrapped up our August sprints and are rallying to charge into September. The game’s development is cranking along daily and we’re still on pace for our Q4 release deadline for the Kickstarter alpha crew.
For this month’s update, we’ll highlight 3 big areas we’ve improved and share a cut of the latest Executive Producers meeting video.

Progress Highlights

This month we’ve hit an exciting tipping point on the visual display for character cybernetic accessories and display. It took some final updates to our shaders, new blend shapes, a new texture mask and some cool new 3D models for certain pieces, but things are starting to look very augmented around here.

Throughout August, we’ve also been refining job trees and what kind of Talent bonuses they can provide. We’ve completed another design pass to clearly delineate what bonuses are granted by job trees, backstories, and attributes versus those which are granted by cyberware, gear and (on the field of battle) Talents. The following extra additions have also helped us carve out even more exciting and unique space for each of your merc’s Job types and further amped the appeal of cross-Jobbing.

[*]We've added new Passive Talent types such as a hook when a character gets missed by an attack (Passive OnMissed), a hook when you get Downed in battle (down but not dead, Passive OnDowned) and a hook if your armor suffers a cracking hit (Passive OnArmorCrit) are all rounding out the Passive Talent category
[*]We've enabled Passive Talents to do more than just give bonuses, they’re able to react and initiate a free reload, for example.
[*]We've added more Talent rules and special clauses, such as a Sniper’s Take Position Talent which will stay active for 3 Turns unless the Sniper moves (and therefore, leaves the position) or a Cyber Knight's Quantum Assault which can only target and affect drones.


In a similar vein, we’ve been reviewing and tuning the game’s weapon variety, working hard to ensure every weapon class stands alone and offers unique strategic advantages and drawbacks when used – optimal range bands, unique takes on Action Point economy, variation of firing modes like full auto and more. On top of that, we've rolled in some of the needed special rules – Railguns now cut through enemy cover up to 10% while mercs carrying Pistols and SMG are allowed to fire these light weapons even if they lack the full AP cost of their entire attack. Powerful energy weapons – like plasma rifles – that bring a limited number of shots to the battle and can never be reloaded also add a major dose of spice to the weapon options.

Executive Producers #8

We held Executive Producers #8 at the end of August. This was a particularly exciting one where we focused on the unique aspects of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint’s tactical combat. Then, we demoed the concepts in action on an alpha mission. However, that footage is for Executive Producer eyes only (per their Kickstarter reward), so we’ve included a redacted excerpt of the session and slide deck where we talk about the pillars of our inspirational games (XCOM-likes) and how we've gone beyond them.

Reward and Stretch Goal Progress

With each update, we always include the progress bar infographic. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us. With this update, there are no changes to the progress bar as we are getting down to only a few final milestones before the next big thing – alpha late this year.

We are still delivering 3D faces – some of those remaining are dependent on specific cyberware, accessories or beards to be completed before we can send them out. Thank you for your patience on these, they are coming.