Cepheus Protocol

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Dev Update

2026.2.28.2 Live on Experimental, March is Civilian Evac Month

Developer Update This Week
Save and Load System Expansion
Continued System Coverage

This week was heavily focused on expanding Save and Load support across additional systems.

Save and Load support has now been implemented for:

  • Projectiles

  • Grenades

  • TOW systems

  • Flares

  • Select airstrikes

Not all airstrikes are currently supported.

The following are not yet saving and loading correctly:

  • MOAB

  • Gas Attack

  • Dragon

These remain excluded for now and will be addressed next. Please refer to the list at the bottom of the Save and Load tracker for full status details.

A significant portion of development time also went into fixing desync issues, multiplayer inconsistencies, and general stability problems discovered during live testing.

Multiplayer Stress Testing

We ran several gameplay balance tests sessions with up to 10 players over this week on discord publicly.

Between Day 5 and Day 10 of those sessions, we identified network degradation under sustained load. What began as balance observation turned into a deep replication and bandwidth stress test.

We collected from those present in the balance test:

  • Player logs

  • Save files

  • Replication behavior data

Using that information, we recreated the failure points internally and identified where replication cost was ballooning. Several community suggestions were also implemented and are reflected in the patch notes.

Network Optimization Results

After restructuring key replication paths, overall network traffic cost was reduced by approximately 70 to 80 percent.

For players, this should translate into:

  • Increased stability at higher player counts

  • Reduced late game desync escalation

  • Improved host performance under heavy load

Replication cost scales with player count. Every additional client increases outbound state replication from the host. Reducing baseline replication overhead was critical for scalability and large sessions!

Client Simulated Projectiles
Architectural Shift

Projectiles are now client simulated while remaining fully server authoritative for damage.

The flow now operates as follows:

  • The server calculates and validates damage

  • Clients deterministically simulate projectile visuals locally

  • Authority remains strictly on the server

Clients do not determine outcomes. They only reconstruct visuals from server instructions. This significantly reduces bandwidth while maintaining security and integrity.

This is the first implementation of this system and is currently available only on Experimental.

Because this system also integrates with Save and Load, it requires live stress testing before public release. We will be monitoring for issues involving:

  • Saved projectile state

  • Late join synchronization

  • Cross client consistency

Internal testing has not produced breakage so far.

Infrastructure and Power Rebalance
Increased Strategic Weight

This Experimental patch also introduces structural balance adjustments centered around power and logistics.

Previously, expansion could occur with minimal infrastructure consideration. Power functioned more as a soft requirement than a strategic constraint.

Changes now include:

  • SOC’s require active power

  • Increased power costs across major structures

  • Tier 2 and Tier 3 generators carry real strategic value

  • Barracks, Motor Pool, and related structures require stronger planning

The intent is to increase the weight of:

  • Builders

  • Infrastructure

  • Logistics chains

  • Territorial expansion planning

Expanding into new zones now requires deliberate infrastructure rather than opportunistic placement.

We are specifically looking for feedback on pacing and pressure introduced by these adjustments.

Ongoing Stability Work

In addition to Save and Load expansion, we continued working on:

  • Multiplayer desync reduction

  • Replication optimization

  • Save and Load bug fixes

  • General performance improvements

The Save and Load system is approximately 3/4’s complete. The target is to reach functional completion by Monday or Tuesday of next week. Once that milestone is reached, development focus will shift fully toward pathfinding, desync cleanup, and systemic polish.

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.

After we wrap up the save/load early next week ->

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

Also in this patch

  • MP5 was added to the Operator (Under the SMG specialization)

  • MDR was added to the Operator(Under the DMR specialization)

  • More Save Load support for the Direct Strike, White Phosphorus ( MOAB, Gas Dragon not done yet)

  • Client Side Prediction added for Projectiles (Lowers network traffic by a HUGE amount)

  • Tons of Network traffic Optimizations overall network traffic was cut by 70-80%. (Faction XP, Gibbing Data, Impact FX, and other various elements were heavily network optimized)

  • Airstrike optimizations

  • Nerfed smaw and Hellfire damage to Chelsey and Increased enraged DR when she gets below 50% health

  • Increased base hellfire damage slightly

  • MLRS projectile speed increased + Damage Radius

  • Fixed up weapons to restore a relative ‘last fire time’ when saving/loading (so weapons with noticeable fire intervals, like spine turrets, don’t get to fire instantly on loading save)

  • Updates to client building placement to reduce or fully block attempts to ‘set down multiple buildings on same spot’ by spam clicking

  • Updated Cannon turret weapon icon.

  • Updated SOC icons and Doctrine descriptions.

  • Updated VADS turret weapon icon.

  • Updated Scout drone move preview.

  • Muzzle Flash System reworked to solve desyncs & Stutter (Operator might have some issues going into Monday its a known issue we are looking into)

  • Fixed Turret Flashlight dancing bug on clients at night time

  • Fixed Flashlight attaching to the wrong location on turrets

  • Fixed Muzzle FX attaching to the wrong location on Turrets

  • Fixed Engineer/ Medic sometimes canceling a sprint order when they saw an enemy

  • Fixed Projectiles after the client simulation update causing bogus collision at impact points

  • Fixed Engineer Auto repair not working for CERC structures

  • Adjusted some Power costs for the CERC Generator

  • Updated garrison sockets for the Medical Ajax

  • T1-T3 power audited to make them cost effective based on physical size + costs

  • Updated Ajax non-driver seats to be angle-locked for now, to stop ‘rotating seats’ issues

  • Resolved a fog of war issue where infected seeing a CERC structure would force that structure to “wake up”.

  • Added arrow key movement for RTS

  • Fixed ToggleAutoRefillAmmo and RefillAmmo commands (for turrets) not functioning

  • -Fixes for PlayerFaction-related ‘race conditions’ for clients: for clients this should greatly reduce instances of FOW vision, unit overhead UI, or unit visibility being ‘incorrect’ on late-joining or being a lobby that then loads a save

  • Slightly increased visibility of Gas tower AOE markers.

  • Updated A-10 gun run effects to spawn decals at Low settings.

  • Increased Gas Tower health from 7500 to 12000.

  • Gas Tower Reduced build speed by 50%

  • Half Moon Bay and Treasure Island Zone borders were redrawn to better support the turret/guard tower build restrictions.

  • Blocked Radioman being ferried on helicopters from expanding the call in area

  • Made the minimum Attack faction 1 as setting it to 0 makes it revert back to stock numbers and removes the override

  • Fixed another reported crash on the Operator

  • Fixed visual bug on unit details panel for Power requirements

  • Fixed toggle sprint not working

  • Fixed MGL not working properly on Operators when you have AI use the weapon. They would always never account for the grenade drop

  • Increased cooldown for Infection Pods & Gas Towers to 90 and 180 after they are destroyed to bring down the “wack a mole”

  • Increased Requestion center XP tick by 50%.

  • Rebalanced power requirements for T3 walls/gates

  • Made Ammo tents cost power as with medical tents to Operate!

  • Ammo Tent renamed into supply centers for all unit types for Gas/Ammo/Supply now supplies universally.

  • Added new Power and infrastructure costs to all CERC structures including SOCS.

  • Made SOCS T2-T3 require teching up through the Doctrine Tree

  • Lower Bounties on Pandemic for killing all Infected types by 50%

  • Lowered M2 Sentry reserve ammo by 50%

  • Attack Move support added for Save/Load

  • Bradley TOW now works for Save/Load

  • Projectiles now Save/Load

  • Increased Turret limit per zone to 12 like in legacy

  • Fixed logic bug that allowed juggernauts to keep adding spawns after Day 6+. It could get up to crazy numbers

  • Fixed a logic bug that could cause infected to freeze in combat

  • Adjusted Chelsey’s Spawn/Location placement code to stop her from sometimes going into the ground

  • Fixed an issue with Structure getting the wrong Wall variant when save/loading

  • Updated Guard Tower loading to properly spawn Tower Guards when construction is completed after being loaded from a save while still in the ‘construction hologram’ state

  • Combat Flare Save/Loads

  • Rally Points for clients Save/Load now (only if you’re there at join time)

  • Adjusted Custom Game Options and the Options Widget to have a darkened background behind the ‘hover tip info’ section, to make it more readable

  • Fixed a bug where save/loading while a Skycrane was delivering a structure it would teleport back to the carrier and stay there

Known Limitations with save system

Most combat in Cepheus Protocol is hit scan, so the majority of gameplay is unaffected by saving mid-action. A small number of transient objects still require additional handling if you save at the exact wrong moment.

Updated save TBD list:

  • Call in system (Only MOAB, Gunship & Gas don’t Save/Load)

  • Stun system

🎙️ Next CERC HQ – Livestream Details

🕔 When: Weekly Saturdays – 3 PM EST (New Time!)

💬 What is CERC HQ:

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

  • Total Revamp based on Community Feedback

  • Level Design Updates

📺 Where to Watch:

🎤 Don’t miss our Live Q&A! We’ll be answering questions from the community during the stream.

📺 Missed a Stream? No Worries!
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