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.
Patch Notes for 2026.8.4.1(Experimental)
+ 4.2(Normal) :
Fixed a patrol bug that could cause vehicles to stop functioning after the gas station requirement was triggered.
Ground vehicles now project their movement target toward a valid fuel restoration point, preventing them from becoming stuck while attempting to refuel at Motor Pools.
Added additional safeguards to prevent ground vehicle patrol orders from canceling while the vehicle is moving to refuel.
Ground vehicles will now retry blocked patrol movements instead of allowing a single obstruction to halt the entire patrol order.
Issuing another patrol order to units that are already patrolling should now behave more reliably.
Improved the reliability of patrol orders resuming after being temporarily interrupted by combat.
Units that detect a target outside their current weapon range can now resume their existing patrol, attack move, guard, or movement task instead of becoming stalled.
Improved vehicle refueling destination validation so ground vehicles select positions that are within range of the assigned resupply structure.
Vehicle patrols no longer require a fuel point while Unlimited Gas is enabled.
Vehicles will now correctly respond if Unlimited Gas is disabled after a patrol order has already started.
Significantly improved helicopter refueling behavior.
Helicopters now search for a designated resupply landing location when returning for fuel.
Motor Pools now direct helicopters toward the helipad instead of the raised center of the structure.
Fixed a melee dead zone that could prevent Juggernauts from successfully attacking nearby targets.
Fixed an issue where Juggernauts could be launched into the air after picking up vehicles and attempting to throw them at helicopters.
Reduced damage falloff for vehicles thrown by Juggernauts.
Fixed Civilian Mobs facing the wrong direction while moving.
Fixed units continuing to face an active combat target while constructing a structure.
Improved handling for units that become trapped inside a structure when construction finishes.
Added additional validation and recovery checks for units located within completed structure bounds.
Improved selection box handling around completed structures and units obstructed by structure geometry.
Fixed turrets continuing to rotate after their owning unit was destroyed.
Mouse hovering a dead vehicle's weapon will no longer highlight the weapon.
Increased the supply range of Atlas supply vehicles by 3 times.
Reduced the number of birds deployed in response to air units during Day 4.
Fixed a possible memory leak that could occur when enough radio speaker sources were destroyed within a short period.
Fixed several cases where corpses could fail to deregister from the unit registry.
Improved unit registration and cleanup safety during death and actor removal.
Expanded the new Fog of War system to additional Open World, Pandemic, RTS, and cooperative maps.
Generated new Fog of War topology, surface height, static occluder height, and minimum occluder height data for supported maps.
Continued work on smoothing Fog of War visibility boundaries.
Updated how Structure Layouts are saved and loaded.
Added a dedicated local catalog and document storage system for saved Structure Layouts.
Added validation for Structure Layout documents and manifests.
Capturing a Structure Layout now ignores non-mesh components.
Resupply radiuses and other utility components should no longer be incorrectly captured as part of a saved building layout.
The only difference between public and experimental is that experimental has the new GPU powered visuals for the fog of war and new height based system which places more focus on scouting now.
Continuing Into now...
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.
Weekly CERC HQ's
When: LIVE SATURDAYS 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.
Where to Watch
Watch CERC HQ 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.
