Civilian Evacuation Is Now Live On Public
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Civilian Evacuation has now moved from Experimental into the default Public install of Cepheus Protocol.
For the last few weeks, players have been able to test the system on Experimental while we continued working through the core loop, save/load behavior, multiplayer support, civilian flow control, intake behavior, and the wider session reliability issues that come with a system this large.
As of this update, Civilian Evacuation is now stable enough for normal Public branch play.
That does not mean the system is finished. It means the core loop is now far enough along that players can run a full session from beginning to end with the modern evacuation systems active by default. From here, our focus shifts into bug triage, flow cleanup, vehicle reliability, guard AI behavior, RTS quality of life, and the next major infected faction push.
Tutorial on Evac
[dynamiclink href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W6s5cUTacw"]
What This Public Branch Merge Means
This update brings the current Civilian Evacuation pass into the default version of the game. Players no longer need to opt into Experimental to play the main evacuation loop.
Civilian Evacuation is now part of the default install
Full sessions can now be played from beginning to end with Civilian Evacuation active
Save/load support is done
Multiplayer support is done
The newer civilian flow systems are now the main direction over the older legacy methods and are far superior and easier to work with
Public branch feedback will now drive the next round of fixes and cleanup
Civilian Evacuation is not a side system. It touches the wider RTS loop, zone control, civilian movement, intake processing, vehicle usage, reputation consequences, infection pressure, and long term match pacing.
Civilian Evacuation Now Lets You Choke Off Chelsey
The newer evacuation system is built around stronger flow control than the legacy methods. Instead of forcing every civilian or group through a narrow set of older behaviors, the current system gives players more tools for controlling how civilians move, where they go, and how quickly they are processed.
Recent updates added support for civilian and no civilian modes for gates, evacuation waystations, improved intake behavior, and better routing so civilians and mobs can move toward controlled flow points instead of always pushing directly into intake or world buildings.
This gives the system a stronger foundation for larger matches. It lets players shape movement patterns, reduce congestion, and build cleaner evacuation pipelines instead of fighting the old flow logic every session.
Our current mission intent is to lock in the systems that are already present, stabilize the remaining edge cases, and then move forward into the next major line items.
Known Issues And Current Triage
Bus AI improvements in terms of turning (We are actively looking into this right now)
Loading old saves from before today may incur Population jumps as the global population of some zones were increased across all maps to account for the Biomass resource that infected need to build their armies now
If you run into evacuation issues, vehicle pathing problems, save/load problems, or multiplayer desync behavior, please report them with as much session context as possible. The more specific the report, the faster we can isolate whether it is routing, state persistence, multiplayer replication, vehicle turning, or flow control.
This Week’s Focus
This week is primarily about stabilization and targeted quality of life work before we shift harder into the infected faction pass.
Vehicle turning reliability
Vehicle pathfinding information cohesion
Guard AI responsiveness
Civilian Evacuation flow cleanup
Some Network/Performance improvements
Upgrading walls into double gates
Quality Of Life Priorities section below
Vehicle turning is one of the biggest areas we are reviewing right now. Several edge cases have been identified where vehicles do not turn as reliably as they should under certain conditions. We already have multiple initiatives under assessment to improve that behavior and reduce cases where vehicles need player intervention to recover cleanly.
Guard AI is also getting attention. The goal is to make guarding behavior more responsive, more reliable, and faster to react when units or structures come under pressure.
Quality Of Life Priorities
Alongside the core bug fixing, we are also lining up several RTS quality of life improvements that should make normal play feel better across every session.
RTS camera improvements with better responsiveness and control feel
Server browser improvements with clearer custom game settings and map previews when highlighting servers
Guard AI improvements focused on reliability, movement, and reaction speed
Vehicle pathfinding improvements focused on consistency and clearer behavior in edge cases
Double gate upgrades so existing walls can be upgraded into double gates more cleanly
Patch Notes Summary
Attack Move, Guard and Patrol vastly improved
Unit icons can be assigned to as Guard/Garrison points instead of relying on per pixel accuracy
Operators can Manage Active Intakes/Zones from their F7 window now
Civilian Mobs Dynamically merge at intake and when they enter structures to free up population to keep the flow efficient.
Civilian Mobs now have a simplified/vs complex mode that allows individual animations for higher end machines.
DNA hides in Cinematic Mode
Mass Deletions/Landscape clears don't spam the log anymore and are grouped dynamically based on player and unit type
Time Dilation is now logged (Slomo, Fast Forward resume etc)
Various Infected Attacking improvements to their Combat AI
All Evacuation assets are finalized and in including the new DNA research elements under logistics
Civilian / Bus waypoint system is now in allowing you to force drop off points for mobs/busses in zones where you build them.
No Gate/Mob mode for certain gates to restrict certain areas from movement
Staff/Security Animations improved for Civilian Evac divisions.
New Idles added to all classes/combat Animation's
Lighting overhaul to the maps to bring them into alignment and better then legacy in terms of Night time lighting and ambiance use the new Light Render Distance to tune it based on what GPU you use.
A revamped Clearing/Brush tool (Bulldozer) that allows you to switch between different modes for managing the map. You can also now "resize" the tool via holding Shift then scrolling your mouse wheel in/out.
Landscaping Mode
Condemn Building Mode
Purge Building Mode
Clear Building Order
Cheat Modes added for Ammo
Normal
Unlimited
Bottomless
Cheat Mode added for Resupply
Normal
Unlimited Supply
Gas Cheat Mode
Normal
Unlimited Gas
Endless Horde Mutator added
Allows you to disable all limits for Infected for using resources and allows them to "cheat" and build massive armies should you want a more "crazy" game.
Multiplayer Colors added so users can choose a color before joining games now and their Operator flare also reflects it .
Predictive Code added to better "guess" where an infantry/Vehicle is going to be in 1 second so gates open sooner to avoid "crashes"
Repair time for all structures were adjusted to be a lot more reasonable across the board
Build Visuals added to all Infected Meshes/ Build times increased for all Infected structure types
Builder/Infection Manager nerfed to how often they can "expo" in the mid-late game to bring down the "whack a mole' nature of gameplay.
Airstrikes work during Slomo/Tactical pause for targeting now
Standalone version of Treasure Island
Move orders from Minimap/Run orders
Custom game options to rebalance Evac
Added Look/Aim Mouse Sensitivity to Operators
Added a toggle for users to opt out of World Camera shakes from Hero Weapons
Color System added for last order by for coop
Killing Infected structures now gives you positive reputation in the zone you killed them in
Trees/Foliage now blend in out based on Operator/RTS
Power states no longer clear the recruitment window and instead block the build button as this was confusing people.
Various Save/Load issues with Mesh variants for Infected
Emergency call in for Engineers after all units are killed + CERC structures
DNA Collection Device added to scientist
Civilian Militias that attack you when your reputation drops too low in a zone
Full Martial Law and Partial
Infected Drop DNA which can be used for the two new Intake upgrades(More are coming in June)
Population Meters is online
Gas Tower Infection Motes affect the Operator screen now
QWERTY vs AZERTY mode added
New Operator Weapons added
Primary Weapons
M416-A7
AK105
G36
MP5
RX12
AUG
XM45
UMP
AK-85
Secondary Weapons
DE50
USP
New Operators visuals added
Winters
CBRN Guard
CERC Pilot
Moved the current Civilian Evacuation experience into the Public branch. Which includes these changes. These include gifs/videos and more in-depth breakdown of everything in this patch
[dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/673996847087353935"][dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/712276809750677259"][dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/712276809750677215"][dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/693135877118886524"][dynamiclink href="https://steamcommunity.com/games/979640/announcements/detail/525374254465680188"]
The known issue list will keep changing as more reports come in. Our goal is to identify the highest impact issues first, especially anything that interrupts long sessions, multiplayer sessions, save/load continuity, or evacuation flow.
The Next 60 Days
The next 60 days are about getting the game fully back into its major intended loop, then pushing beyond what existed in Legacy.
The Rebuild is already past Legacy in several important areas, but there are still major line items that need to come back online, be refined, or be expanded. Players can also see the active priority order on the far right side of the main menu.
Civilian Evacuation polish and bug fixing
Formation AI and wider movement improvements
Vehicle pathfinding and turning reliability
Guard AI refinements
RTS camera and control improvements
Server browser improvements with custom settings and map previews
Operator Polish Period
San Francisco North expansion work
Infected intelligence improvements
New infected variants
Lieutenants and late game infected progression
Leviathan progression
The immediate goal is to stabilize the systems that are now live, then move into the next major gameplay push without leaving Civilian Evacuation half locked in. Once the current flow, vehicle, guard, and session stability work is in a stronger place, our attention shifts heavily into the infected faction.
June Is Infected Faction Month
June is focused heavily on Infected AI and the infected faction as a whole.
The goal is not just to add more infected bodies to the map. The goal is to make the faction smarter, more varied, more threatening, and more capable of creating pressure across the full match.
Over June, we are moving toward roughly half a dozen new infected types and major updates to existing infected behavior. This includes Lieutenants, the Chelsey side of the new AI work, Leviathan progression, new offshoot mutations, and larger infected threats built to change how players respond to the late game.
One of the new infected concepts under development is a heavy Behemoth style threat. The intent is a massive infected unit with a huge health pool, devastating melee impact, and slower movement that forces players to reposition, focus fire, and respect its presence when it enters the battlefield.
That infected pass is one of the most important upcoming milestones for the game. Civilian Evacuation gives the player a stronger strategic layer. The infected faction pass is what pushes harder against that layer and turns those systems into real pressure across the map.
San Francisco North And The Bay Area Map
San Francisco North remains a major part of the broader roadmap. It is the direction of the future Bay Area experience, and work will continue through June and July as we keep expanding, connecting, and stabilizing the larger map.
The focus for San Francisco North remains traversal, detail, pathfinding, performance, visual polish, and making sure the larger Bay Area map supports the core Pandemic experience correctly.
As the evacuation systems, infected faction, vehicle behavior, and AI systems stabilize, San Francisco North becomes more important because it gives those systems the scale they were built for.
Where We Are Now
Civilian Evacuation is now live on Public. It can be played in full sessions. It supports save/load. It supports multiplayer. It is not final, but it is now the default direction of the game.
The next step is not to tear the system apart again. The next step is to lock in what is already there, fix the highest impact issues, improve the flow, and then push into the next major priority set.
That means vehicle reliability, guard AI, RTS quality of life, server browser clarity, evacuation flow, save/load stability, multiplayer stability, and then the infected faction push through June.
Thanks to everyone who played the Experimental builds, reported issues, sent saves, joined multiplayer sessions, and helped us identify the edge cases that only show up after real players get their hands on the system. Public branch feedback is the next major step in getting this system fully hardened for the rest of the Rebuild.
