2026.3.6.1 Revised Power Balance and Bug Fixes

Developer Update This Week

This week was focused on stability, balance, and finishing key systems before the next big push.

Last week we laid the foundation with client side prediction for projectiles. This week we finished the remaining save system work tied to that update and continued pushing through bugs, reports, and gameplay concerns raised by the community.

Save System Completed

The save and load system now properly supports the major abilities and effects that were still being finalized.

This includes the MOAB, gas attack, dragon gunship, napalm, and other related systems. These now save and load correctly, which was an important step in making the current build more stable and complete.

Balance Changes and Power Cost Revisions

A large part of this week was spent working directly with feedback from players on Steam and Discord.

We took longer than expected to push this build because we used the week to review balance concerns in detail, especially around power costs and the overall pacing of expansion and control. We have been lowering values, adjusting them, and testing different directions throughout the entire week to get things closer to a state that feels right.

The current direction slows the game down a bit and adds more thought to building, expanding, and securing zones. That extra layer of planning is intentional, but we are still actively reviewing it and we want to hear how it feels once more players get time with it this weekend.

Releasing to the Public This Weekend

We still believe releasing this build to the public this weekend will give us the final push needed to solidify the current balance pass.

Please jump in, test it, and let us know what feels good and what still needs work. The feedback we get going into this weekend and into next week will directly influence the next round of changes.

Michael and Leon will both be reviewing what players are saying and using that feedback to decide what should be adjusted further.

Also expect 2 more guns into the weekend for the Operator as shadow patches

Community Feedback Threads

To help keep balance discussions organized, Leon will be setting up a master feedback thread on Steam, along with a matching thread on Discord.

The goal is to create a clear place for players to post concerns, thoughts, and suggestions about the game’s balance as a whole. Cepheus Protocol is a complicated game and it is only getting more involved, so having a focused place for feedback will help us respond more effectively.

Bug Fixes and Stability Work

Outside of balance, we spent a lot of time this week working through bug reports and community feedback.

Right now our short term focus is on the last vehicle pathfinding bugs, helicopter pathfinding issues, freezes, desyncs, and remaining performance concerns. The goal is to get these final issues under control as we continue stabilizing the build.

Network Optimization Progress

At this point, we believe the current round of network optimization is largely complete.

There may still be edge cases here and there, but compared to the previous week, we were able to reduce network traffic by roughly 80 percent across the board. That improvement came largely from working closely with the community and collecting logs from active testing.

We expect to revisit networking again later as new mechanics come online, but for now things are in a much stronger place.

CERC HQ Time Change

CERC HQ now has a new start time.

The weekly podcast and Q and A will now begin at 7 PM Eastern Standard Time instead of 3 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Closing

Thank you again to everyone testing, reporting issues, and sharing feedback on Steam and Discord.

A lot of the progress this week came directly from that back and forth with the community, and it is helping us tighten up both the game’s technical foundation and its overall balance.

March Roadmap and Short Term Priorities

March is about locking the rebuild foundation and finishing the remaining carryover items. Some February work is continuing into early March by design. We are prioritizing long term stability over rushed deadlines. To be direct, we rushed major systems in Legacy and it created instability, and we are not repeating that mistake. It is fair to be excited for Civilian Evacuation, but we need the next week or so to iron out what is already in place. We appreciate the continued patience while we work through the remaining items below.

First up: Player Concerns feedback from this poll

• Pathfinding improvements and formation system fixes

• Bug fixing across Pandemic and core systems

• Small quality of life changes that improve flow and usability

Runner up: Remaining Roadmap Elements Before Civilian Evac

• Infected Birds to improve mid and late game Infected counters so sessions do not overly rely on Juggernauts

• AJAX Avenger

• SAM Site Turret

Civilian Evacuation Roadmap

Once the above stability work and Infected Birds are complete, we will shift fully into Civilian Evac.

• Each player to manage their own evacuation camps

• Full multiplayer compatibility

• Single player parity

Link to Civilian Evacuation Steam thread

Patch Notes

• New Gas Tower VFX

  • Added Infection Motes that pollute the screen. They get visually stronger the closer you get to the center of said gas zone

  • Added a vignette effect for when Operators/RTS units move their camera into gas zones

Steam post imageSteam post image

• Lowered medical tent power requirement on 75

• Lowered cost of T1-T3 walls

• Increased the cost of Hesco T1 a bit

• Ammo count fixed on the MDR

• Reduced recoil for the MDR and reduced spread

• Fixed an issue where the Juggernaut Ground Stomp would not affect Vehicles

• Fixed some Juggernaut issues where could drop their car on accident or just move while throwing

• Fixed an issue where Juggernauts would walk on certain CERC structures,

• Fixed Projectiles for clients not going through allied objects correctly

• Fixed Guard Towers not properly blocking CERC shooting. Made it so the guard tower windows "lock up" when power is lost

• Converted SpringBok to a light vehicle instead of Heavy

• Adjusted Motor pool/barracks no build radius to make it more accurate to the actual safe margin they need to operate

• Removed Save system from Todo on pause menu

• Improvements to movement logic and debugging to fix Juggernaut 'stuck' issues

• Fixed an AI bug where units could break out of "Stun" due to a C++ Race Condition

• Improved Juggernaut Throwing Calculations to improve their accuracy and lower their failure rate

• Guard tower power decreased to 50 over 100

• Fixed a logic issue when adding a weapon to a garrisoned unit that failed to hide said weapon if the unit was in a visible-but-not-shooting-enabled seat

• Fixes for Structure location save/load, related to saving when Skycrane was en route back to the Carrier

• Set up save/load of unit groups for host/clients (if they're present at loadgame time, for now: does not yet remember when rejoining after being in-match)

• Fixed CERC units turning oddly in vehicles they were garrisoned inside that they could fire from

• Fixes to AA12 and TAC21 unlocks to properly unlock for all infantry instead of only for specific units: this fixes Winter not being able to access these weapons after unlocking them

• Fixed Clients recruiting to groups not working sometimes from the recruit menu

• Fixed up Operators not obeying the Group selection dropdown on the Recruit Popup

• Made it so switching between Operator/RTS remembers your zone render status so u don't have to fix it every time you switch between modes

• Lowered the Power requirements of Double gates T1-T3 to range from 20-60

• Added basic description to the Engineer Decoration Shop button (so it doesn't say the generic back-button description when highlighted)

• Updated the CERC Custom Sign decoration to save/load its text

• Fixed Squads creating "ghost" units when someone was killed

• Field Medics (Infantry) Not Treating Injured Troops "Hold Fire on"

  https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1477704551258783934/1477704551258783934

• Fixed Money splitting error where you would lose money randomly when splitting equally amongst all players

• Fixed Guard towers not counting kills correctly, same with occupied AJAX's for units that shot from it

• Fixed Crash

  https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1476808942477774939/1476808942477774939

• Fixed

  https://discord.com/channels/469412014427602944/1477665468318744606/1477665468318744606

• Braking logic to 'stay in formation' now tries to scale braking instead of always putting brake to full strength as soon as we're 'too far ahead': also no longer applies if we're not 'speeding' relative to other members

• Vehicles in an incomplete formation move (i.e. still moving to target with teammates) will no longer temporarily think they 'finished moving' and turn on handbrake: this fix greatly mitigates 'stuttering' from heavy vehicles moving with soldiers

• Adjustments to HealthComponent XP/Doctrine XP/kill crediting to only work if target is not on same faction

• Adjustments to Instigator-setting for projectiles that spawn Environmental Hazards (and for saving/loading said hazards) so kill-credit goes through correctly for them

• Fixed Helicopters on HMB Horde Rush not being able to enter the area. They now spawn over the helipad they are built at to respect that maps unique setup

• Save/load improved for call-ins so MOAB doesn't 'disappear' if you save right after calling it in, before it's detached from the plane

• Added a darkened background to the custom game description as well

• Set up the Input Rebinding Widget to have a darkened background, to make it easier to read

• Crash fix for TickComponent() [C:\\Main-Repo\\Unreal Projects\\CepheusProtocol\\Source\\CepheusProtocol\\Core\\Components\\MovementComponents\\HelicopterMovement.cpp:1007]

• Additional safeties added to client side prediction for helicopters for crashes reported

• Fixed Charon weapon pylons being visible without weapons equipped.

• Fixed SOCs being able to be built anywhere via an exploit

• Added SOC's to engineer build bar for T2 and T3 so you can skip the process of building a T1 first.

  Also in this patch!

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Welcome to Cepheus Protocol HQ, your ultimate weekly briefing on all things Cepheus Protocol! Join the Halcyon Winds team as we explore the latest updates, reveal behind-the-scenes development stories, and answer community questions about the game. From exciting new features to design challenges, this is your all-access pass to the evolving world of Cepheus Protocol. Tune in every week and stay ahead of the outbreak!

• Co-op Progress

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• Level Design Updates

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