Character Creation + Class Poll
about 6 years ago – Wed, Feb 12, 2020 at 11:41:41 PM

Knights and Backers!

With your help, we’ve secured the Valkyrie Zero stretch goal at $100,000 and you didn’t stop there -- we're now more than half way to the new dog breed stretch goal! 

Before we move on to the main focus of today’s update, let’s take a minute to say Thank You!!! to every backer who is supporting us and helping make this game even bigger and better. Valkyrie Zero will add a sprawling parallel storyline including side quests, new story characters, new contacts and new personal stories attached to your recruitable mercenaries. This content is completely optional but adds an estimated 20 hours of additional interwoven story to explore in every playthrough. This stretch goal gives us budget for the additional contacts, missions, maps, recruitable characters, loot, traits, cyberware and will allow us to take a closer look at the narrative behind the fall of Knight Horizon and the aftermath years later.

For today’s update we are sharing details about the Character Creation system in Cyber Knights: Flashpoint. We’re also including a popularity contest for the OG character professions from the old Cyber Knights RPG, so jump in and comment to vote on the poll at the end of this update!

We’re going to be discussing and taking questions on the Character Creation system on Twitch at 4 PM EST today (Wednesday 2/12). We hope you’ll join us there! If you need a reminder, just follow the channel and Twitch will email you very politely.

Creating your Knight

Your Knight is the leader of your mercenary team and the protagonist in the cyberpunk story of Flashpoint. During character creation the main focus will be on designing your Knight in detail and picking your starting mercenaries.

We set out to design a character creation system that is fun and easy to use, while still offering fine-grained control over every aspect of your Knight. For those players who have experience with Star Traders: Frontiers, this system will seem familiar but enhanced in a lot of exciting ways.

While there will be canned templates if you want to pick up and play immediately, Cyber Knights will offer you a ton of customization options right from the very beginning, allowing granular control over all aspects of your character. You’ll be tailoring your visual look, picking a profession, customizing skills, selecting a background, upgrading your safehouse and rounding out the entire design with edges and flaws called Traits.

Background Package

It all starts with your Background Package. Your Background Package selection will be your first and most important choice as it will have a big impact on your Knight’s flavor and style. Your Background Package is the archetype for your character, and includes some mandatory Traits, your list of optional Traits and determines the starting mercenaries available to recruit during character creation. For example, the Affluent Background Package casts the Knight as a fallen member of high society, exiled or rejected for one reason or another while the Corporate Background Package makes your Knight a company man or woman who has lost their all-important corporate job and citizenship. Other Background Package like Unionist, Free Streets, Ganger, Rail Hobo, and Ex-Military provide a wide variety of choices.

Spending Priority Points

Once you've selected a Background Package, you'll craft your character by making priority decisions and spending from your starting pool of 100 priority points. Each expenditure of points will gain you some bonus in one area while reducing the total number of points you have available to spread over the other categories. Each category will have a maximum spend to maintain a fair balance, as shown here:

• Background Package [free]
• Profession [Up to 40 Points]
• Traits [Up to 30 Points]
• Skills  [Up to 40 Points]
• Attributes [Up to 40 Points]
• Safehouse [Up to 50 Points]
• Pick a Complication [free]

Profession and Starting Mercs

Each Background Package can be combined with any Profession -- such as Hacker, Gunslinger, Agent EX -- which representing your Knight’s core competency. While your Background Packages don’t limit which Profession you can pick, they do create some natural synergistic combinations -- like the Ganger Cybersword or the Ex-Corp Hacker. We expect to learn a lot about the character creation meta during the alpha test!

Because some Professions, such as Hunder or Drone Pilot, have expensive required cyberware and companion animals or drones, these Professions require more priority points than others.

Your Background Package will also determine the menu of starting mercs from which you can pick. Your new Knight with the Ganger background will select from local thugs, street sneaks, hired guns, and augmented muscle. This will create natural combos and a believable synergy to your starting team but also drive emergent starting strategies. You might create a Knight with the Ganger background and pick Hacker as your Profession since you can pull in a set of the right bodyguards and get the Traits you want, but won’t have access to a starting Hacker mercenary.

Attributes and Skills

You’ll have the option to spend priority points to increase your innate Attributes and Skills above the average level. During gameplay and advancement, there are a lot of options to change your Attributes and Skills -- through Traits, cyberware and Job training -- but your priority points help determine your starting innate statistics. Once set, you'll look to augmentation, the hard choices you make and the experience you earn through the story to mold your Knight and all of those around you. Skills and Attributes are split into different groups with different priority point costs, some cost more and some cost less.

Traits

Finally, your Background Package will grant you access to a list of Traits to choose among as well as determining two Traits that you must take. You’ll be able to spend priority points from your pool to gain additional Traits. Knights coming from an Affluent background might gain access to Traits like Shrewd, Slick Talker and Classically Schooled while Knights coming up from the streets and the Ganger background will pick among Traits like Tough, Hooligan and Scarred.

Safehouse

Your safehouse is your home, your castle and your base of operations. By dedicating additional priority points to its starting build, you can gain early game advantages. If your Knight or starting team is going to feature a Drone Pilot or a Hunder, you’ll need to include one or more kennels or drone bays to support their activities. Otherwise, you might dedicate priority points to upgrade the weapons workshop or medical facility to help your up-and-coming team overcome some of their early challenges.

Picking a Complication

Few careers start clean and none end clean. There will always be complications and to model that into the story you’ll need to select a Starting Complication with every new Knight. Each complication will be tied to your genesis -- telling the story of how and why you became a Cyber Knight and the kind of trouble that comes with such a transformation. Starting Complications storylines will not last the entire game but they will leave a mark on your Knight, your team and your legend.

You won’t spend priority points on your Starting Complication, but each will change the starting storyline and re-prioritize what things you might need to worry about in the early game.

The default Starting Complication is that you and your friends have taken a risky loan from a criminal kingpin in order to afford the illegal cyberware and your surgery at an underground clinic. As it is with any good loan shark worth their salt, the criminal kingpin isn’t going to accept fair monetary repayment, and so ... your Starting Complication.

Other included Starting Complications that we're considering feature you having disappeared for a month and making a sudden return to your old crew with missing memories. Or, your hiding your old identity and trying to find a new life as a Cyber Knight because you've crossed the dreaded Yakuza. It's only a matter of time before they catch up to you ...

The Kickstarter rewards include some Starting Complications as well, such as “Cyber-Tactician Ally” at the $100 reward level. This complication focuses on the scenario in which a powerful head of security at Crane Technologies funds your surgery in return for a dangerous favor. Of course, it turns out to be more than a favor and your benefactor -- Max Mercer -- turns out to be slightly less interested in your well-being and long career than you might have hoped. Still, you owe him for what he has done and he knows where you live, so ... your Starting Complication.

The “Horizon Cypher” storyline extender we shared early in the campaign as a 48 hour free reward is also a Starting Complication. It will focus on the scenario in which the hardware you have implanted into your spine comes with its own set of trouble and dangerous people looking for it. It's only later, after your fixer disappears and some hatchetmen trash the clinic where you had your surgery that the truth history of your new permanent implant start to come to light, and so ... your Starting Complication.

Starting Digital Rewards ($25, $40, $60)

Of course, all your awesome Kickstarter digital rewards have a big part to play in character creation. Starting digital rewards like Chromehawk Weapons and the Nano-Boosted Start can be added to any new Knight, regardless of all the choices you made in character creation.

Chromehawk Starting Weapons ($25) are the only way to start the game with advanced weaponry for your Knight and squad. Instead of getting the standard street-level starting weapons, everyone on your team will start with an improved and visually distinctive weapon. 

The Nano-Boosted Start ($40) will line your pockets with extra cash which you can spend on anything from ammo to an extra medkit and will also give your entire squad an improved set of armor and starting gear.

These digital rewards will appear as checkboxes during character creation which you can toggle on and off with every new Knight. So, if you don’t want the boost on a certain run, you can simply turn them off. You can use both, one or none for each game you create.

The Omega Style Collection ($60) isn't character creation specific as it adds new styles, outfits and accessories to every game -- which you can pick during character creation or for any character on your team during regular gameplay.

OG Profession Poll

In the original Cyber Knights, there were 7 jobs and we want to know which you liked the best!  Did you play the Cyber Knights classic on your Android? If so, jump in and tell us who your favorite was and why. If you didn’t, just pile on your favorite name or ask questions about the different OG jobs!

• Hacker
• Sniper
• Cybersword
• Gunslinger
• AgentEx
• Face
• Hunder

The choice you make here will determine the default starting profession of the first template in the game. Cast your vote, and the street punks are sure to tag crumbling concrete and rusted-out cargo crates with your name across the New Boston Zone for generations to come!

But first, check out one of our art team members at work adding details to the street muscle outfit in 3D!

And some other environmental artwork coming off the presses -- 

Stretch Goals: Skyrise + Hacking Mk2
about 6 years ago – Sat, Feb 08, 2020 at 12:52:44 AM

Knights!

Welcome to day 4 of the Cyber Knights: Flashpoint Kickstarter! What a blazing start we’ve all had together. In the initial project rush, we’ve blown past our funding target and our first four stretch goals. Today, we’re rolling out our next wave of funding goals all the way up to our ambitious $200,000 stretch of Matrix Mk2.

We’ve still got lots of time with 27 days remaining. Please help us get the word out by continuing to share our project with your friends and gaming communities. Tell someone new every day and help us keep this project blowing up and getting bigger and better! Here are some ideas --

• Post the campaign to social media
   
• Share our interview with Rock, Paper Shotgun with gamers!
   
• Tell your gaming group
   
• If you’re an active member on a gaming community site, share it there (don’t spam)
   
• Tell a friend who is going to PAX East about us in the Kickstarter room, 10 AM to noon daily
   

Without further wait, we’ve unlocked the following 11 stretch goals! We’ve covered each category in detail below the graphic.

Enough blaze, let’s get down to the details.

Lorebook Unlocked!

The Star Traders: Frontiers Lorebook has been one of our favorite resources for the game. It’s a great introduction to the universe and its history both old and new. It introduces the factions and all the interesting ways the intergalactic society functions that are vastly different than ours. With your successful funding of the “On the Street” stretch goal, we’ve now committed to publishing an illustrated lorebook for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint that will be publicly available. Based on the current content, timeline and art we have lined up we’d expect it to be upwards of 50 pages.

Street, Military and Corp Outfits ($120K, $180K)

Style is the lifeblood of cyberpunk and we want to keep cramming more visual options into the game. The game will already include 30 options for outfits along with a wide variety of facial accessories (glasses, earpods, implants and more) and the ability to shift color on outfits. We’ve already unlocked the Streets Outfit stretch which will add 2 new streets outfits. Through the $130,000 Military Outfit and $180,000 we’ll add 2 new outfits of each of those types for your soldiers of fortune who want to dress like soldiers or want to wear that high style blitz.

Doggos! ($110K)

In 2231, decades of breeding and cybernetics have transformed some dog breeds into hunds -- cybernetic wardogs of the future. We already have two dog breeds ready for the game -- the doberhound attack dog and the pithund tank dog. Each of the breeds will come with different strengths and weaknesses -- where the doberhound is faster and a powerful attack dog, the pithund is a nigh unstoppable tank with jaws of steel.

At the $110,000 stretch goal, we will add a third dog breed to the set. If we reach the stretch, we’ll hold a poll if it should be a support/utility dog like a hound (beagle!) or a fast attack dog (shepherd). Yes -- we are going to make you choose between our dogs -- King Tut or Rigatoni.

Drones! ($120K)

In the same mold as hunds, each drone chassis will have its own capabilities, strengths, weaknesses and armament options. We already have four drone chassis ready for the game and are excited to now have just unlocked a new scout drone to add to the set. The scout drone will have lighter weaponry, scanner talents and be more stealthy engines to avoid detection.

New on the list is an additional battle drone at the $120,000 stretch. If we’re able to add this drone it will function as a combat support drone capable of both boosting defense while using its hardpoints to lay down heavy fire against enemy targets.

Animation Expansion ($140K)

The depth and variety of a game’s animations has a huge impact on its final beauty and polish, especially in the heat of combat. Our animation budget has so far covered the bases we need -- running, walking, crouching, leaning into cover, reloading and more. But we’d love to open up more budget to add even more important animations to the game -- like petting the dog. Some of the additional animations would change gameplay in interesting ways if we can afford them -- lifting and dragging bodies (unconscious targets, dead guards) or vaulting over barricades (giving even more movement flexibility).

This expansion would benefit both the mission combat map as well as the safehouse. Improved idle animations, doggo pets, relaxed walking and hand gestures would all be welcome additions for safehouses and cutscenes. In addition, this stretch goal frees up some additional budget for better animation blend trees to improve the 3d aspects of directional animation, like the character taking a bullet or being killed by a grenade. We’re confident the current animation budget will look good, but with this additional funding we can really polish it and take the game’s characters to the next level.

Skyrise Environment ($150K)

Every mission environment in Cyber Knights: Flashpoint will bring a unique set of props, level design, enemy types and security systems. The 3D environments we’ve shown so far are all the industrial environment which covers warehouses, industrial facilities and secure bunkers. Another environment already in development is the urban environment which covers the underground tunnel systems, open street fights and dilapidated slum habtowers.

The Skyrise Environment stretch goal will let us add a completely different environment. Instead of infiltrating a corporate facility, data lab or a gang den, you’ll be breaking into a luxury residence. These high lifestyle residences may be inside an arcology or just high in one of the towers, hundreds of stories above the street level of the NBZ. This new environment type will open up a new set of guards, security system behaviors, map challenges, loot and mission types. In the Skyrise missions, you’ll capture high value targets, steal data, liberate corporate citizens or assassinate executives who’ve outlived their usefulness.

Soundtrack Expansions ($160K, $190K)

Studio Viking has already helped us compose an impressive soundtrack for the game but having more music -- especially music tailored to environments -- goes a long way to keep a game feeling fresh and deep. At each of these two stretch goal levels, we will be able to increase our budget to work with our composer to add 3 tracks (per stretch) to the game’s soundtrack -- which of course will be available to all $25 Soundtrack Edition backers. The first expansion will focus on the Skyrise and have a softer feel of a lux residence. The second will focus more on the industrial synthrock music you might find blaring out of the sound system of a criminal safehouse.

Matrix Mk2 ($200K)

Like to save the best for last?  Yes, yes we do! While we are very excited about the current design of how hacking will work in the game, we know that it could take a bigger role. Cyberspace has always been at the heart of cyberpunk fiction and if we can, we want to make the hacking capabilities within Cyber Knights even more amazing.

First, let’s talk Hacking Mk1 (without this stretch goal) -- because it's already pretty awesome. Your hacking-enabled characters will seek out terminals, access panels and other hackable objects that are scattered across a mission map. If your hacker can reach these you’ll be able to access the hacking mini-game. Once connected to the terminal, you’ll spend your turn’s Action Points on trying to break through different security protocols -- hopefully while your Stalker team member hangs nearby and uses their Action Points for their turn to overwatch and guard your six. You’ll use a mix of cyberware and Job Talents to break through the computer security and depending on difficulty it might take you multiple turns and attempts. If you’re successful, you’ll be able to download and steal any valuable data on the system or control something in the real world through network functions -- such as shutting down or taking over security systems and door locks.

Now, let’s all collectively drool over Hacking Mk2! Hacking Mk2 will deepen the existing design. During missions, the gameplay will be very similar except that the actual hacking of an enemy terminal will have more depth.

• When your hacker accesses a hackable target, you’ll gain access to the root node of an internal node-map for that system. Each node on the interconnected map will contain valuable data to steal, system functions like opening a door or dropping the alarm level and of course, the ever-present IC security protocols. In the same way as Hacking Mk1, your hacker will spend their AP each turn overpowering the security and moving between nodes on the map to access the different goals in the matrix system node-map. Adding this additional depth to each terminal will open up a lot of exciting variation -- small shallow terminals with easy maps all the way up to the quantum mainframe with highly challenging maps that your hacker must conquer while the enemy security closes in and the rest of your team is fighting for their lives.
• New safehouse upgrades that will allow your hackers to run matrix hacks from within the Safehouse to gain pre-mission advantages. Hacking will no longer be only a mission feature but something you can do independently from your safehouse! If you don’t want to hack yourself or want your team to focus on other capabilities, you can pay Hacker Contacts to do this work for you.
• With additional depth in the hacking system comes additional depth in the hacking gear. Your computer equipment and programs are going to get a boost in the variety and tactical capabilities to support the new node-map based hack experience.

If you’re looking for a visual of what inspired us to design Mk2, check out this amazing video of the original Sega Shadowrun hack. Watch long enough to see the node-map behind the visual navigation, the different types of nodes -- data, functional, IC -- and the sheer awesomeness of what could be Cyber Knights: Flashpoint Hacking Mk2.

We hope you’ll comment to let us know what you think about the new stretch goals and which you find to be the most exciting! Share your excitement here and let’s keep the momentum going together! Also, remember to tell a friend and share the campaign.

Thank you for your support, and we will sign off with a pile of art and gifs!

Andrew and Cory Trese

Now Live: Reddit AMA + Twitch
about 6 years ago – Thu, Feb 06, 2020 at 06:29:36 PM

Good morning backers!

We are sending out a quick update as a reminder of two cool things going on today!

• Right now, we are doing an AMA on /r/pcgaming on Reddit. The AMA is live right now and we'd love to answer your questions. Ask me anything!
• Later today at 4 PM EST, we will be doing a Twitch stream and talking about some of the memorable and funny moments of the Trese Brothers studio. It is going to be a definitely "behind the scenes" stream in which we share a lot of stories no one has probably heard before. Hope you'll join us!

Thanks for your support and for sharing the project with a friend! The next stretch goal has swung into view and we're on our way! We'll get a big set of stretch goals unlocked in our next update and also really get into updates that lay out more about the game's systems -- stealth, hacking, weapon mods and base building!

Thanks again for your support,

Andrew and Cory Trese

Trese Brothers Games

PAX East + AMA + Twitch + Survivor Poll
about 6 years ago – Wed, Feb 05, 2020 at 11:37:25 PM

Backers, Cyber Knights and new Recruits,

What a monster start you've turned in! Cyber Knights: Flashpoint has now marked off another stretch goal and seems to just keep going!  Today, we’re sharing an update focusing on all the different ways you can connect with us -- at the 2020 PAX East, on Reddit for tomorrow’s AMA and live on Twitch!

Trese Brothers at PAX East

We are thrilled to announce that both Andrew and I will be at PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts this year from February 27th to March 1st! What a fitting venue -- I can all imagine the New Boston Dome stretching over our heads and drones whirling overhead. We’ll be joining the Kickstarter team in their big room right above the main convention floor. We’re excited to have a chance to share the game with such a huge audience and hope that if you are coming to PAX East that you will take a detour up to the Kickstarter room to say hello!

Both Andrew and I will be in the Kickstarter room from Thursday to Sunday from 10 AM EST to noon EST. As it happens, PAX East falls right in the lead up to the campaign's final week, so we’ll be there drumming up extra support and showing off the game’s prototype. For the rest of the day, we’ll be around the show or hanging in the room. Please comment below to let us know if you’re going to be there!

Reddit AMA Schedule for 2/6/2020

Andrew and I will be hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit tomorrow in the /r/pcgaming subreddit at 11AM EST. Watch our Twitter, Discord and Kickstarter page for links to the Reddit around that time. In attendance will be myself, Cory Trese (Design, Development, Dinosaurs) and my brother, Andrew Trese (Creative Director, Art Director, Pumas) answering any questions you might have. We’ll be around for at least the first four hours, and then we’ll jump over to Twitch …

Twitch Stream: History of Trese Brothers!

Trese Brothers has led Andrew and I on a pretty wild adventure between 2010 and 2020, and “How did you get here?” is a question we’ve heard from backers this week. We figured one of the best ways to share that journey is to sit down and tell the story, together. We’ll be co-hosting a Trese Brothers stream on Twitch, at 4PM EST. There will be stories, jokes, toasts and roasts as we recount the decade that made Trese Brothers what it is.

Classic Survivor Poll!

You may have played or heard of the original Cyber Knights which launched 10 years ago on Android only. It feels like a lifetime ago and was our second game in a long string of games that lead us here. But like all of our games, it has a compelling gameplay loop and deep mechanics that has kept it a favorite among many of our core community and still helps it get downloaded today.

For those players who know Cyber Knights classic, we’ve got a special poll for you tonight. Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is set 14 years after the original, so it's very feasible some of the famous characters are still alive and kicking. You may vote one time in the comments on this update thread with the name of one of the three characters who survives to Flashpoint’s start date and will be featured in the game.  I know this might get heated so play nice, Knights ;)

•  Eliza Krofter (she was the young Knight you save in “Made, Not Born” storyline)
•  Clive Zep (he was your first merc)
•  Side-Arm Gerrin (she was a famous Los V gang warlord)

Obviously, Max Mercer is still alive. Everyone else dies.  Now get voting!!!

Thank you for your support,

Cory and Andrew Trese

Trese Brothers Games

First 48 Update
about 6 years ago – Tue, Feb 04, 2020 at 11:35:01 PM

Knights, Backers and Friends,

Cory and I are beyond excited about the progress the campaign has already made! We have now passed the first two stretch goals and the backer count on the project has nearly doubled throughout the day. We feel so fortunate to have your support on Cyber Knights and to have such an excited and positive community rallied around the game. 

One of the joys of our day was sharing the good news and celebrating with our extended team. With your help we’ll hit additional stretch goals, so join us in sharing the project with anyone you think would like it.

We are rolling into the last 12 hours of the “Horizon Cypher” early backer free reward and have hit our first two stretch goals. We’ve provided a bit of extra detail about each below along with some other helpful resources -- if you need to back the game via PayPal, want to wishlist the game on Steam or just want to know how to find us to ask questions.

We’ve ended with a question we’d love to hear your feedback on -- what types of game and content-focused updates are you eager to see?

Stretch Goal: On the Level

• The Alpha Wallpaper Pack contains 3 Kickstarter Exclusive digital wallpapers focusing on the characters from the game in stylized renderings.
• Backers will receive an unlock code to enable an in-game option that turns on a Kickstarter exclusive starting Trait for their Knight, Cyberkeen. This background Trait provides your Knight access to a gamma-grade nano-clinic for their spinal implant, avoiding some of the side effects and producing a tighter neural mesh.
   

Stretch Goal: New Streets Outfit

• The art team will expand the fashion catalog with a newly designed set of streetwear to join the 30 planned outfit options. We will publish the new concept art in a Kickstarter update once the new design is ready. This outfit will be available in the game for all players.

PayPal Link

If you want to pledge to the campaign outside of Kickstarter, you can now use our PayPal pledge page. The stretch goals for the project can be reached with PayPal pledges and we’ll keep careful track of that and announce any that are hit.

Steam Page

In preparation for the game’s eventual launch, we’ve opened a Coming Soon page on Steam, where you can follow the game or add it to your wishlist.  We hope you’ll join us on the community discussion boards by posting a comment, question or your support for the game’s campaign.

How to reach the Trese Brothers

As always, we’re on the Trese Brothers Discord server where we are welcoming Knights and players of all of our games to come and hang out. We’re online every day -- come share your stories, feedback and get involved. We also have our popular Trese Brothers Games Forum for players who prefer a less real-time form of communication.

Trese Brothers on Twitch

You can find Cory (and sometimes Andrew) on the Trese Brothers Twitch where we are streaming game development, answering questions and talking about the studio Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4PM EST.

What updates do you need to read?

We’re excited about some of our planned features like “Tactical Thursdays” and “Stretch Goal Friday” that deliver content we know a Kickstarter campaign needs. We are curious, however, about what you want to hear more about. If there is an update title, topic, concept or question you’d like to see for a future Flashpoint Kickstarter Update, please post it in the comments below!

Thank you again for your support!

Andrew and Cory Trese

Trese Brothers Games