THE BAY AREA IS COLLAPSING. The virus is loose across the peninsula. Flashpoints are erupting across the region as entire districts fall into chaos and infected swarms push deeper into civilian zones. CERC forces are already in the field.
Embedded military reporters and frontline operators are transmitting battlefield coverage directly from active operations. The images you are about to see were captured during recent combat deployments across the region.
These transmissions come directly from the front. The battle for the Bay Area has begun.
Update Now Live on Public and Experimental
The current Public and Experimental build combines three major waves of development work: the July 11 Experimental update, the July 27 Experimental update, and the newest changes completed between July 27 and August 1. For the sake of readability, the newest August 1 changes are displayed below. The July 27 and July 11 Experimental updates have been condensed into expandable summaries, with links to their original in-depth patch notes at the bottom of each section.
2026.7.31.3 — New Since the July 27 Update
The following additions, fixes, and improvements were completed after the July 27 Experimental update and are included in today’s Public and Experimental rollout:
Updated Building Deployment Visuals — Structures now use a clearer visual state while actively deploying, making it easier to distinguish construction in progress from a completed structure being delivered by Sky Crane.
Buildings now display a separate visual state while they are actively being deployed.
Completed structures are more clearly separated from buildings that are still waiting for construction to finish.
Sky Crane deliveries now communicate the current deployment state more clearly when structures arrive in the field.
Vehicle Patrol Refueling — Gas-powered vehicles now require a fuel resupply point somewhere along their assigned patrol route.
Vehicles dynamically monitor their fuel level while carrying out their patrol orders.
When fuel runs low, the vehicle will automatically leave its active route and travel to the assigned resupply point.
After refueling, the vehicle will automatically return to its patrol chain and continue operating.
Patrol routes loaded from older saves will continue to function, but players should recreate those routes so that a valid fuel resupply point can be added to the chain.
Improved Vehicle Destruction — Vehicle deaths have received another visual and physics pass, improving how destroyed vehicles react when they are taken out of combat.
Physical behavior for vehicle wheels and tires has been restored and improved.
Destroyed vehicles now react more naturally during their death sequence.
Wheels and other affected vehicle components can physically separate and react during destruction.
Loose and Tight Formations Re-Added — The Loose and Tight formation options from Legacy have returned as part of the continuing RTS control pass.
Loose formations allow units to maintain additional spacing while moving as a group.
Tight formations keep selected units grouped more closely together.
These options provide additional control over unit spacing based on the operation, terrain, and threat being encountered.
Improved Construction Queues — The construction queue system has received substantial improvements across the board, with a particular focus on dense bases and tightly packed structure layouts.
Improved the handling of multiple structures queued within a concentrated construction area.
Improved construction behavior when several buildings are placed close together.
Reduced issues caused by large numbers of structures competing for construction space inside dense base layouts.
Improved the overall reliability of large construction queues and heavily developed bases.
Additional Control Improvements — Unit, vehicle, camera, formation, and selection controls continued receiving fixes and quality-of-life improvements throughout the current build.
Continued improving how vehicles respond to assigned orders and patrol behavior.
Continued refining unit movement and formation controls.
Continued improving camera and selection behavior across different control methods.
Additional selection-management and control improvements remain in development and will continue into next week.
July 27 — Experimental Update
The July 27 Experimental update introduced another substantial round of CERC OPS support, performance work, combat improvements, balance changes, crash fixes, interface updates, networking work, and visual polish.
CERC OPS Integration
CERC OPS was released on Experimental, giving players access to a live tactical companion that can run alongside an active Cepheus Protocol operation.
Added access to CERC OPS through the pause menu.
Added support for copying local connection information without permanently displaying the address.
Connection information is hidden again after leaving the relevant menu.
Expanded CERC OPS support for deployment windows, total population, DNA, money, time of day, activity logs, chat history, news updates, and other operational information.
Improved CERC OPS layout, link sizing, spacing, text presentation, and general menu usability.
CERC OPS can run on a second monitor, laptop, phone, tablet, or another supported browser device connected to the same local network.
The companion also includes tactical planning tools that can be used to draw boundaries, mark locations, establish operational areas, and communicate plans while the game continues running.
Performance and Networking
Reworked structure, infection, health, weapon, and unit systems to reduce individual timers and repeated updates during large matches.
Added world subsystems that batch recurring simulation work together.
Improved structure and world-building dormancy to reduce unnecessary network activity during the mid and late game.
Fixed visibility updates unnecessarily waking dormant structures and causing network spikes.
Reduced the processing cost of projectiles, weapons, turrets, ragdolls, corpses, and temporary actors.
Improved weapon-reset logic and melee cooldown handling that could create performance spikes in larger sessions.
Improved build-progress replication and Sky Crane network relevancy for connected clients.
Reworked Animation Quality scaling and updated Infected LOD behavior at higher unit counts.
Optimized the update frequency of several weapon muzzle effects.
Combat and Infected AI
Improved repeated Infected melee attacks and reduced unnecessary delays between attacks.
Allowed Infected to perform opportunistic melee attacks when valid targets enter range while moving.
Improved melee targeting against walls and other large structures.
Fixed host melee animations sometimes playing twice.
Corrected the Spine Thrower using the wrong damage type and dealing excessive damage to certain units.
Improved projectile reliability against aerial targets.
Fixed projectile collision and friendly-fire issues involving gates and other affected structures.
CERC Balance
Increased damage across a broad selection of CERC infantry weapons.
Corrected the SCAR-L and HK416A7 after they were missed during the initial infantry weapon update.
Improved several CERC weapons and vehicles against Infected structures.
Adjusted Sparrow M260 and Hellfire balance and corrected the Hellfire doctrine unlock.
Reduced the population cost of the Charon and Shawnee.
Adjusted population requirements for the Abrams and Cerberus 105mm.
Reduced the construction cost of the Evacuation Site and Ammunition Tent.
Adjusted Director’s Cut starting resources and SOC income.
Reduced the Juggernaut respawn rate.
Corrected the Security unit to use its intended MP5 configuration.
Vehicles, Aircraft, and Weapons
Temporarily disabled wheel and tire physics when ground vehicles were destroyed while instability within the Chaos physics system was investigated.
Updated vehicle explosion audio and several affected vehicle configurations.
Improved Sparrow, Charon, Blackhawk, Apache, and related minigun behavior.
Updated M134 muzzle effects and firing audio.
Improved TOW missile visuals, audio, backblast effects, guidance-cable presentation, and unfolding animations.
Improved Dragon Gunship tracer visibility.
Fixed the Dragon Gunship area indicator using the wrong center icon.
Adjusted Springbok suspension behavior.
Fixed incorrect mesh configurations on the Merlin and Evacuation Helicopter.
Improved helicopter weapon-focus behavior when aircraft only have secondary or tertiary weapons equipped.
Civilian Administration
Holding Cells can now indicate when a scanned infected civilian is inside.
Improved saving and multiplayer replication of civilian infection-scan status.
Fixed the Euthanization Tent popup failing to identify infected civilians who died before fully converting.
Improved several civilian administration, evacuation, and multiplayer edge cases.
Interface and Controls
Fixed spacing and padding within the pause-menu options.
Fixed DNA visuals remaining visible for clients after cinematic mode or the DNA visibility option disabled them.
Fixed the numeric garrison display appearing in incorrect contexts.
Restricted startup Custom Game Options to the main menu.
Improved RTS camera zoom behavior across different viewing angles.
Fixed formation-completion behavior that could rotate units incorrectly after they reached their destination.
Crash and Stability Fixes
Fixed multiple crashes involving queued Attack Move orders.
Fixed crashes involving gate structures and Infected biomass currency data.
Fixed a ragdoll-subsystem timing issue that could conflict with corpse-limit management.
Fixed vehicle parachutes occasionally falling beneath the map without being cleaned up.
Fixed a Juggernaut vehicle-throw issue introduced by projectile-initialization changes.
Improved build-progress replication for connected clients.
Improved network relevancy and dormancy handling for structures and delivered buildings.
Maps, Visuals, and Audio
Continued environment-detail work across North San Francisco.
Updated Oak Bay Bridge meshes, ramps, and the surrounding Treasure Island roads.
Updated navigation and collision across Iron Wake and other affected maps.
Added missing damage volumes in Iron Wake.
Updated several vehicle materials and environmental assets.
Improved vehicle engine-audio attenuation and updated the Alcatraz roof material.
This is a condensed summary intended to keep the combined Public merge readable. The original July 27 announcement contains the complete in-depth patch notes and additional context for this Experimental release. View the Full July 27 Experimental Patch Notes
July 11 — Experimental Update
The July 11 Experimental update focused on AI behavior, performance, helicopters, movement queues, vehicle handling, camera improvements, map navigation, multiplayer behavior, and general stability.
Performance
Added subsystem optimizations targeting improved mid- and late-game performance.
Reduced CPU overhead across AI, vehicles, projectiles, animations, and other gameplay systems.
Continued optimizing visual effects and core gameplay systems.
Helicopters
Improved helicopter AI movement, landing, and combat behavior.
Improved fast-rope positioning and landing accuracy.
Added a new approach system allowing Infected to properly attack landed helicopters.
Fixed several helicopter movement and animation issues.
Movement and AI
Continued development of the Move Queue system.
Improved transitions between queued movement orders.
Improved Attack Move behavior and mixed movement queues.
Improved vehicle formations and pathfinding.
Fixed several situations where units could become stuck or behave unexpectedly.
Infected Birds
Improved Infected bird synchronization in multiplayer.
Improved save-and-load support for Infected birds.
Added an early version of bird death effects.
Improved bird attacks against structures and helipads.
Vehicles
Updated vehicle destruction effects.
Improved treaded-vehicle animation and movement behavior.
Expanded vehicle engine-sound positioning.
Improved MLRS missile effects.
Camera and Interface
Improved camera zoom smoothing and responsiveness.
Improved camera-follow and minimap-camera behavior.
Continued improvements to Steam Workshop preset support.
Maps and Environment
Improved navigation across Calypso and other maps.
Added additional AI navigation support around cliffs.
Fixed several lighting, collision, and environmental issues.
Bug Fixes
Fixed turrets firing while unpowered.
Fixed multiplayer issues involving the Juggernaut vehicle-throw attack.
Fixed several helicopter, vehicle, structure, and save-system issues.
Added general gameplay polish and stability improvements throughout the game.
This is a condensed summary intended to keep the combined Public merge readable. The original July 11 announcement contains the complete in-depth patch notes and additional context for this Experimental release. View the Full July 11 Experimental Patch Notes
Another Shadow Patch Tonight
Following tonight’s CERC HQ, we are planning to deploy another shadow patch to the Experimental branch containing the new GPU-powered Fog of War. This is a significantly more performant version of Fog of War that moves its visual rendering workload entirely onto the GPU instead of placing additional strain on the CPU. We have covered how this system works during previous CERC HQ episodes, and it represents one of the last major performance hurdles carried over from Legacy and addressed throughout the Rebuild. During performance stress tests with players from Discord and Steam, the new system produced substantial performance improvements during the mid and late game, particularly when large operations, high unit counts, and multiple active combat zones were running simultaneously. We are still updating the maps and integrating the new Fog of War across each playable space. Once deployed, it will remain on Experimental for several days while we monitor performance, visibility behavior, map coverage, and any edge cases uncovered by players. The GPU-powered Fog of War will be showcased during tonight’s CERC HQ before the shadow patch is pushed.
Continuing Into Next Week
The remaining command and quality-of-life systems are continuing into next week while we finish the Fog of War rollout:
Saved Squad Compositions
Players will be able to create presets for individual units combinations, allowing teams with specific classes and loadouts to be rebuilt quickly and named so you can replace loses quickly and to further encourage customizing unit loadouts as a "Deck" you can build over games.
Infection Clearing Squad
2 Assaults with Shotgun
1 Scientist with flamethrower
2 Heavy's with M240
Sniper Support Squad
3 Snipers with M107
1 Radio Man
1 Engineer with LAW secondary
Note: Each unit is still an individual and not "grouped" in the control sense!
Saved Building Presets
Players will be able to save, share, and quickly deploy building layouts in the field through a blueprint system.
Selection Management Improvements
Ability to remove an individual unit from the current selection.
Class and ability cycling within selected groups.
Additional Control Method Improvements
Updated Development Roadmap
The Development Roadmap on our website has been completely rebuilt and expanded. We noticed that many players visiting the Steam page were also checking the roadmap, particularly players returning after being away for several years. The updated page now provides a clearer explanation of why the Rebuild exists, what has changed since Legacy, what is currently playable, what is still being restored or redesigned, and what is coming further down the road.
It also covers the upcoming Lieutenants, the infected overhaul, new infected variants, mutations, Escalation, the Leviathan, and answers to the most common questions we see across Steam and Discord. The roadmap and FAQ will continue to be updated as development moves forward and new questions come in from the community.
https://www.cepheusprotocol.com/roadmap
CERC HQ Episode 100 Summary
Last week marked the 100th episode of CERC HQ. You can catch up on the full milestone episode below: [dynamiclink href="https://youtu.be/49LKNe3JbIk"]Episode 100 covered the new GPU-powered Fog of War, the first look at CERC OPS, ongoing performance work, vehicle destruction improvements, networking updates, balance changes, interface work, and what the team is preparing to tackle next.
Join Us Tonight for CERC HQ Episode 101
CERC HQ EPISODE 101 — LIVE TONIGHT When: Tonight at 7:00 PM Eastern Another week. Another deployment. Another look behind the curtain at the continuing development of Cepheus Protocol. CERC HQ is our weekly development podcast covering the latest development progress, current technical challenges, upcoming roadmap work, community feedback, and the systems currently moving through production. Tonight, we will be showcasing the new GPU-powered Fog of War before the Experimental shadow patch is deployed, along with a broader overview of the work completed since Episode 100.
Where to Watch
Watch CERC HQ Episode 101 on YouTube Join the Discord Server Visit the Steam Page
Missed a Stream? No Worries!
Watch the CERC HQ Archive Thank you to everyone continuing to test the latest builds, report issues, send save files, participate in performance stress tests, and provide detailed feedback.
