[img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36740530/91cd96ceff6817f314db50dd0ab3639fcb17e9bb.jpg[/img] Happy New Year, Knights of New Boston! Thanks to everyone for a great year of playing, improving and expanding the game. Early Access would not be any fun without you and your feedback, so thank you for showing up and sharing so much with us this year - your time, your energy, your encouragement and your bugs. What better way to round out the year than a new update? Update #195 opens new critical pathways to gain Influence with your Contacts to help them Limit Break, fixes issues with the Rook Prototype Weapons Power Play service, adds some new awesome weapon models and looks to the game, improves the Power Slice bonuses for the new high-level blades available through the Fadelight Blades Power Play storyline, and makes some other smaller improvements to the display of Glancing Hit rules and fixes an ancient and odd "why do I have 20 Favors with my enemy?" bug. Happy New Year! We hope you'll leave a review as we roll into 2025. [h2]High Rarity Blueprints Boost Influence[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36740530/e24a2d51c2ae1a18e5b61e960c69b8d4018d42dd.png[/img] As a Cyber Knight in the New Boston underworld, you're ability to execute your high-risks heists are highly dependent on your network of Contacts being able to source and sell you the right gear, equipment, medical services, cybernetics and more. So, it is just as important that you pick and chose allies among the underworld Contacts and help those Contacts climb in power, Influence and reach. There are multiple ways to help your Contacts grow in Influence - including running missions they offer, completing additional secondary objectives on these missions, completing Legwork they offer and selling them Epic or Legendary Rarity Accounts. Accounts has been the only flow from looting to Influence but Update #195 expands the pathways in new ways to connect a lot more of the world's valuable loot to your Contact's Influence. Accounts are basically locked to the Matrix, so getting these to "feed" your Contacts required Hacking. Now with the addition of Epic and Legendary Blueprint sales adding +10% to the buyer Contact's Influence, there are new options stemming from both the matrix and regular lootboxes. Unlike Accounts, either high Rarity of Blueprint sell for +10% only but you have a lot more chances to draw these Blueprints, so it easily makes up for the difference. If've you been sitting on a cache of high-end Blueprints, it might be time to flush the ones you don't want and help some of your best allies LImit Break a few times. Our next step here will be to introduce additional Epic and Legendary Item Blueprints into the game, as those are very hard to find and limited mostly to combat drugs. This will add additional ways to get Influence to harder to reach Contacts like Doctors. [h2]Rook Prototype Power Play Weapons[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36740530/619fb6f61c8fa190ec39d6e7a69b0b818b6eccd3.png[/img] The major Power Play milestone that recently went live included the Rook Prototype Weapons storyline. The result of this storyline was unfortunately a service from your Contact that was disconnected from any weapons being sold! This is now fixed with all service levels and weapons now correctly connected. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36740530/33688366218a62db5445b9b6a7d8485d178be9ae.png[/img] We've also updated the 3D models for a number of the higher-end weapons being sold with new shotguns and UARs appearing in the game. [h2]Improved Blade Power Slice Abilities[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36740530/c6d21b6b1cd8237f019817aa40c8620796a9d6f2.png[/img] For straight blades - and especially the higher Power Level blades sold in the Fadelight Blades Power Play storylines - some of the Power Slice abilities have been oddly weak compared to lesser blades. This is now resolved with Update #195, giving a powerful upgrade in Pure Dmg delivered with each new blade you can afford. [h2]Glancing Hit Rules - Easier Read[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36740530/c7c7fdce369ada6c9b14c58d519f45894af6daf8.png[/img] We've adjusted the Glancing Hit rules shown in your weapon's detail block to include the % in the title so that you don't need to look into the text block to know if its 80%, 60% or 0% (melee).   [h2]v1.9.71 - #195: Influence Flows - 12/31/2024[/h2] - Selling Epic or Legendary Blueprints to an interested Contact increase their Influence +10% - Fixed issue with Power Play "Rook Prototype Weapons" service not offering weapons - Improved some of the Rook Prototype Weapons, improved 3D models - Improved Blade Power Slice balance - Nine, Zero, Nightsong, Tigerfang and others all gain better Power Slice Pure Dmg - Improved display of Glancing Hit rules for weapons so that the % is shown in the title for easiest read - Fixed very old bug that could grant enemy Contacts +20 Favors inexplicably - Fixed minor map issues with recently released maps