Letter from the Producer #1

Hey guys! So this is a little series i wanted to start to talk about the development of Cepheus Protocol . Enjoy!

Basic Splash screen

So we can keep users informed on our current progress and easily connect them to our Discord and help build a larger community

Lore website/Tutorial

We are also working on a Lore/Tutorial website for CERC that will launch in the next few weeks. Early Preview below!

CERC Outfit meshes revamp

We are currently planning to revise all CERC units and models to prepare them for UE5 and use the added excuse to improve and unify their designs. Heres some quick previews on that front.

Path Finding Improvements

Our first attempts to rectify the path finding were met with mixed results with some users reporting vast improvements to their determinizing logic and others outright still frustrated by it. We chose to dig deeper and gather more data to ensure that when we move on from path finding its a "true" solution that wont require us to backtrack in the future or affect future maps by what we "can" and "cannot" do based on the technical limitations we artificially created ourselves by a shoody workaround to improve path finding.

Thanks to all that have been weathering the seas collecting the pros and cons of our current implementation of path finding and we are currently working on determining if a viable solution is implementing a vastly improved A* path finding system that will in our opinion far improve the current setup.

We expect to continue to keep rolling out smaller bug fixes to the current path finding system over the next week as we also work to polish this system. But this is an avenue we are actively pursuing aggressively.

Factions

Now the big one! Simply said this update will change the very fabric of how the game is played in every regard adding actual repercussions to your actions and how you play the game. This is next up after we are content with the path finding fixes mentioned above.

The rollout will be in waves as followed:

Stage 1: Natalie's Faction is removed temporarily so we can improve and focus on Pierce and the civilian AI.

1. Pierce will gain random starts as with Chelsey. He will gain a personality of a defender/protector of the people, that kind of approach to gameplay. In which he will attempt to continually engage and stop Chelsey from expanding across the map
2. As he enters stage two when he realizes hes losing ground and he doesn't have the men to do it anymore he will make the transition to ally and vassalize nearby dynamic civilian groups that are popping up all over the map. They will then form a protective net where they will intend to "Hold out" from Chelsey and any civilian groups that are hostile I.E raiders/cannibals or you (CERC). Pierce will recruit out of these groups to replace his losses
3. He will continue this personality till they ultimately die as Chelsey takes the map over X hours/day since she will eventually out play and win as the virus starts to mutate

Stage 2: Natalie enters the Fray

1. Natalie's faction will be treated like a force of chaos not erecting and having a central zone or location. They will recruit out of the more desperate survivor groups that are formed I.E cannibals'/raiders more desperate groups on the island that are created from the conflict overall.
2. They will not have a central base but small/tiny outposts across the map from where they recruit from the zones they are within
3. Natalie will hate/fight Pierce's group whenever she can and carry out hit and run attacks including suicidal bomb runs on his compounds
4. Sub factions like Natalie and Pierce can kill each other and they will have hero units that represent them in gameplay.
5. Killing a faction leader will effectively "End" that faction making 80% of their units abandon their post and making their territory ripe for the taking by another group.

Infection System Expansion

From the onset of our release on Early Access we wanted to properly divvy up zones in a "Shroud" whenever Chelsey took land . The idea was that she is converting the space/zone to something more hospitable to her kind collecting biomass and other things to turn cities into an alien hellscape almost.

We have been working towards that front to expand the visuals and accomplish this over the last few weeks and will continue to expand it with biomass that will grow out from the floors/walls and more as she continues to expand into the zone.

It should be noted that this will expand into Walls/barriers she will form from biomass that will impede player access and lockoff access to certain sections requiring a flamethrower be handy for these situations else aerial insertions will be required to bypass them

Expansion of Custom Game Options

More ways of playing the game are being listened to and sought out overall and we want to accommodate more playstyles going into the future.

1. Changes will be made to allow tall/wide gameplay styles I.E expensive upgrades tied to the development of your CP truck that will allow you to increase the amount of population a zone provides (Addon structures) and money zone increases for those that prefer to take a small zone of 3-4 provinces and prefer to build "tall" The cost of these upgrades currently are planned to take into account of how many zones you have to scale the pricing.
2. More sliders and launch options like real time mode and more based on community suggestions of what they want to see
3. Tactical Pause is being looked into no ETA yet

1P Operator October Halloween Launch event

This has been a hidden secret on our discord for myself and Justin that have been the two only developers working on it alongside the other duties we have. I will explain now exactly what this "Feature" is and our hopes for it!

https://youtu.be/hRJAck0prD0

1. The Operator is meant to be a RTS/1P hybrid unit the only of its kind that you can customize and is "your" avatar in the world. I've been talking about making a hero character to work alongside winters well here it is.
2. You can call Him/Her in at any time initially for free practically but each time they die you will have to pay an expensive cost and it will scale with overall level and proficiency.
3. You will be able to pick and choose what abilities from the other classes you give and name him/her from a creator character screen on the main menu. They will be accessible to all current and future games from the call in window
4. In 1P the operator will be able to climb objects, Dive/Slide, Melee, Enter vehicles and drive them, be a passenger, and command them from a basic selection/order menu . It should be noted we will rollout their abilities and expand upon him over time giving him more weapons and abilities as we listen to our community.
5. Their level will be persistent over play sessions so you can grind him out and get him to max level For the Halloween release the plan is to have it so he can access and switch between all the current CERC weapons/command units/RTS-1P in fully functional in swapping / But vehicles might be delayed to a latter time as we have no intention of neglecting the RTS elements of the game as they are a priority first and foremost!

Unreal Engine 5 Update

We are waiting till the engine is more stable and out of the beta phases so we can transition the project from UE4 to UE5 cleanly as doing it too early will cause stability and new crashes that we wont be able to fix or support in earnest because Epic Games will be developing and expanding on those systems. As they have notated it shouldn't be used for "Live" projects just yet because of its unpredictability and that its lacking features even enabled by default on Unreal Engine 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ZnM7CH-v4

UI Revamp

As an update here is the revamped UI that will be adjusted following the factions changes.

Cepheus Protocol Anthology

We will be launching a new weekly series that will see several chapters added every Friday after release and will cover the chapters of the Novelization with 5 chapters added to expand upon the story and give more value to those itching for more lore/story information. It will delve into and show more about a secret new faction that will become the Anti-CERC in the Cepheus Protocol universe.

Don't forget to wishlist!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1707120/Cepheus_Protocol_Anthology/

Year 2 Content reminder