Knights and mercs, what a journey. This Early Access has been something special. As we cap off the final Early Access Update #255, we want to thank you all for being on this crazy ride with us, sticking with us when there was a bug or a missing piece of content, and supporting us and our work to make this game what it is today. Our team (Andrew, Cory, Jay, Liv, and Viktor) all send their gratitude. A special thanks to every reviewer who posted a review and helped us achieve Overwhelmingly Positive (95%+) review score. This is the FINAL update of Early Access - so we've dropped an all new hair, beard and eyebrow system, added a new Street Splicer to the Underworld Hub (with the Wetware cybernetics service, hype!), made the UHUB contacts cost $50K, rebalanced Coordinated Charge, improved Opposition Research to list Sec AI type and security devices, and fixed a mountain of F10s too.

Launch Community Events

First, at 8:30am EDT, we'll be doing a brief launch countdown hangout / Button-Press Party in our Discord. Andrew and Cory will be streaming the big moment when we press the button and Cyber Knights officially exits Early Access! Chat will be sharing memes and memories from the early days, chatting about plans for new playthroughs, showing off favorite character customizations, and more. We'll wrap up the stream soon after launch as I know everyone who's free to will be eager to download and dive in, but the Discord's sure to be hopping all day; always good place to hang out / ask questions / swap builds and tactics, etc. Then at 1:00pm EDT, through 3pm EDT we'll be live on our Twitch channel with an official Full Launch Celebration Stream. Cory and Andrew will be showing off some of the launch update content, answering questions, and chatting about post-launch plans!

New Hair, Eyebrow and Beard System

We've added an entirely new and higher-detail hair, eyebrow and beard system! This supersedes the existing hair and beard system but does not remove it from the game (see below). We know how much love everyone is putting into decking out their squad to make them look good on heists, and this adds a lot more fun and customization options to every character. Before we go any further, the hair system upgrade is about improving mesh and texture quality, so it is a lift on performance. If you have performance issues with the new hair or like the old style better, you can swap back to the old hair system, and the entire game will switch over for you. Just go to Options > Graphics > Hair Quality and set it to Legacy. You can even use this trick if you love a specific legacy hairstyle for a character; you can swap to Legacy, set it for your character, and then swap the game back to Detailed Hair. So what is new?

• There are 32 new hair styles now available to all characters. Every hair style has the option to be double tinted, so you can apply 2 colors to it to a more nuanced or crazy look.
• You can compose your facial hair and beard from a choice between 3 mustache styles, 2 goatee styles, 2 full beard looks and the short shave option as well. These can be combined in any way you like to get the full look you want. You can set your beard colors separately from hair now for the best looks.
• You can pick from 5 eyebrow styles for every character. You can set eyebrow color separately from hair as you please.
• We have more coming - this is what we could get processed, tested and certified for this release but we have a roadmap of additional options to add to the game.

We're very excited to get this into your hands before launch so you can check it out and give us feedback! We did not change any of your mercs look, so if you want to use the new styles, you'll need to go into the game and tweak their appearances.

Underworld Hub: New Street Splicer

Update #255 has added a new and eccentric Street Splicer to the offers from the Underworld Hub. This Splicer has access to the Street Wetware service, which was previously only available through a single recruit and a single backstory choice they could make. Now you can get access to it more widely and with it a number of new cyberware you probably have never seen! Enjoy that - the Splicer is eager to get working. With Update #255, we've also attached a $50,000 cost to getting new Contacts in the Underworld Hub. Making and securing such valuable connections is not free. However, by the time you are using this feature of the safehouse room, you should have enough bankroll that this isn't a huge number, but it is a consideration about when and where to buff your Contact list.

Coordinated Charge Rebalance

We have rebalanced Coordinated Charge - we hope you like it! We shortened its duration by 1 Turn and trimmed its starting range to 10m. We have also moved the +1 Move Point buff right into its default configuration so it's powerful and instantly useful without upgrading it to the gills. The upgrades have lost their +Accuracy % and focused instead of Initiative and Move Speed buffs. It plays more like a Soldier's version of Tact Surge now - very timely, focused, use it right when you need it instead of an ever-present buff you try to keep up to make everyone just go fast all the time.

Face's Opposition Research

With this update, we've buffed what the Face's Opposition Research Talent can do. Once fully upgraded in its buff line, it can now tell you the exact name of the Sec AI you'll be facing as well as summarize the types of security systems that you'll encounter on a map, such as Prox-Mines and Bio-Scan Fields. We also fixed a bug with the Talent where it was using map code names instead of the map names shown in the specific mission. That was confusing!

Pricey Leverages

The leverage price curve got raised a bit recently, but it was like $60K, $72K, $885K ... $90K ... Fingers are for typos! We fixed it.

And More

Let's say - today is a busy day! I am going to skip typing up the rest as it is smaller stuff, so check the full log below for specific details. Lots of nice little things. Big thanks to everyone for their F10s! You know what's next - let's go!

v1.10.75 - Update #255: FINAL Early Access Update - 5/30/2025

- All new Hair, Eyebrow and Beard system: +32 new hair options for everyone, +5 eyebrow options, build a beard with +11 mix-n-match pieces - For performance or preference - one-click switch back to previous hair system under Options > Quality > Hair Quality setting - No mercs were changed, set their new appearance if you want to use the new hair system (or not) - Added new Contact under "Doctors" to Underworld Hub Contact option - locate a street splicer with Wetware service - Locating a Contact with the Underworld Hub now costs 1 Token and $50,000 - Improved Opposition Research Face Talent to include specifics of Sec AI (by name) and Security Devices - Fixed bug with Opposition Research using map code names instead of names seen in mission (Wreckspire instead of District 83 Towers) - Rebalanced Coordinated Charge (moved +1 MP to base, reduced Duration by -1, removed Accuracy buffs, trimmed starting range) - Improved some balance of the Sec AI actions it can take in Escalation to better balance against Heat - Fixed extremely high prices for some Power Levels of Leverages ($885K woops!) - Added section about shareholders and restricted stock to Journal > Terms - Fixed small case where Highest Turn could still be wrong in load game list - Fixed typos and issues with retirement tags - Fixed issue with combat stats and full buff/debuff block missing from mission display - Fixed issues with Hacker dialog and Respects tag in the rooftop mission - Increased physics force some single shot weapons to improve ragdoll

[ 2025-06-01 17:39:38 CET ] [ Original post ]