Project Update : News on Experimental Builds resuming

Hey everyone,

We wanted to share an update on the Legacy System Cleanup. Your support and feedback mean the world to us, and we’re so grateful to have such a passionate community.

Our small but dedicated team has been working tirelessly:
– Robert: Programmer and Studio Director
– Derek: Programmer
– Efrain: Level Designer/Modeler
– Dimitry: Level Designer/Modeler
– Michael : Character Modeler/Animator
– Christopher : Game Designer/Writer

With just the six of us, we wear many hats, but we’re pushing forward with a ton of passion and commitment.

Part of the Legacy System Cleanup involved rewriting the ability system from the ground up. Our previous system worked, but it was difficult to work with and limited how much control we had over individual abilities. The new system is inspired by Fortnite’s Gameplay Ability System, but we’ve simplified it to better fit our RTS gameplay.

The new system is now entirely dynamic and delegate based allowing us to quickly add new abilities to units and prototype within minutes. With the older system abilities could take hours-days per one to implement and was all manual. It was very crappy…

This rewrite has allowed us to refine directed abilities/Passives & Self Cast abilities like, ensuring they not only work more intuitively but also add depth and strategy to gameplay. With this improved system, abilities now look smoother, feel more responsive, and are more satisfying to use than ever before.

One of the biggest challenges we’ve been tackling is fixing FPS drops and performance issues tied to how we handled assets in the past. While resolving hard references will fix an aspect it wont resolve all instances of performance issues.

Back in 2020, we relied heavily on hard references and dependencies, which caused problems like long load times, performance spikes, and a lot of development headaches. We weren’t alone in facing this—teams like the one working on the new Tomb Raider in Unreal Engine encountered similar challenges. Their SDK became so bloated with dependencies that they couldn’t even open it to work on the game we never got to that point. So its kind of a “growing” pain for when your project gets large enough since its not commonly discussed enough sadly and simpler games can get away with it.

Since learning about async asset loading in 2021-2022, we’ve gradually been overhauling our systems to remove “blocking loads.” This has been an ongoing process as we worked through legacy systems built during earlier stages of development. These “blocking loads” were a major contributor to FPS spikes on lower-spec machines, especially during events like creating new civilian factions, loading into the game for the first time or even interacting with certain Shops/markets ingame.

With this current cleanup, we’re addressing the last of these legacy issues. These spikes should finally become a thing of the past, leading to smoother and more consistent gameplay for everyone.

After finishing our cleanup, we’ll also be strengthening the core of the game:

1. Vehicle AI System: We’re finalizing the Vehicle AI system, which will also let us convert evac buses to this system. This will make vehicles more dynamic and reliable.
2. Pathfinding Improvements: Infantry movement is getting a major overhaul with adjustments to how units navigate complex environments. These improvements aim to make movement smoother and more predictable.
3. Laying the Groundwork for Doctrines and More: The cleanup is paving the way for upcoming features like Doctrines, DNA Research, AI/LT Cards, Operators, and eventually co-op mode.
4. We are about to start the most extensive bug hunt in our history after experimental builds resume going into XMAS (Live bug Tracker)
5. We are still submitting the game to be localized and are looking into expanding the language support for even more going into December. More details on this in a few weeks!

While Robert and Derek focus on refining systems, Efrain, Dimitry, and Justin are creating a backlog of assets. This includes the final Doctrine units, buildings, and Airstrikes. We’ll be showcasing these assets in the coming weeks, and once the systems are polished, we’ll be ready to quickly implement them into the game.

The male Operator was finalized

Outfit 1

Outfit 2

Justin now will work on the Infected Standard variants we are planning to expand the current selection by an extreme amount I.E different body types similar to how L4D handles their standard infected.

New Ammo Crate. We are adding a much larger one in the upcoming Doctrines update.

Medical Crate next to the standard ammo create

More variants of smoke launchers were added for the coming upgrade in the Doctrines update

Looking back, there’s so much we wish we’d known when we started. Unreal Engine’s documentation has come a long way since we launched in 2020, and we’ve learned a lot—sometimes the hard way. Despite the bumps in the road, Cepheus Protocol is our baby, and we’re committed to delivering the experience you deserve.

We hope this passion shines through in the details—from the MLRS system in the current experimental build to small touches like shells ejecting from vehicles when they fire. These aren’t just features; they’re reflections of the love we’ve poured into this game.

Not everything is moving at full speed right now. For example:

• World Partition: Due to a bug in Unreal Engine 5.5 affecting CPU usage for building AI paths and HLOD, this work is temporarily on hold. We’re monitoring updates from Epic and will revisit this as soon as it’s fixed.

We’re aiming to release what was discussed in “Building a Stronger Foundation” and Doctrines to the public(non experimental) by early Q1 of 2025. In the meantime, we’ll be resuming experimental builds within the next week so you can see the progress as it happens.

Thank you for sticking with us and being part of this journey. Your feedback drives us forward, and we’re excited to make 2025 a big year for Cepheus Protocol.

What’s on the Docket coming up
https://youtu.be/6zz49hElQa8

Here’s last weeks blog post as well!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/4474984836247847682

Cheers,
The Cepheus Protocol Team