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Offline Asid

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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #15 on: August 25, 2020, 11:33:43 PM »
Cogmind Leaderboards Reborn!
Tue, 25 August 2020



YES, the leaderboards are back in action!
https://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/scores/

With a big Beta 10 mostly done and coming soon, we really needed to get official Beta 9 leaderboards up and running. Not to mention there are plenty of people out there who enjoy either aiming to rise through the ranks, or maybe just browse the leaderboards or other runs to see what others are up to. And of course with Beta 9's incredibly detailed new scoresheets there's even more to see in that regard!

Since they've been silent for a while, the boards currently include all seven releases since Beta 8.




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Offline Asid

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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #16 on: September 15, 2020, 12:15:29 AM »
Beta 10 "Warlord Forever!"
Mon, 14 September 2020



The full ambient soundscape is here, and it's not alone! In Beta 10 we also have expanded bothacking abilities, two more alternate endings, many more types of drones, and of course lots of other features to improve the overall experience.

Diving right in here...

(Note: Like Beta 9 before it, Beta 10 is far too large to fit the entire release notes on Steam--their system doesn't support it, so I've had to share the changelog here as an image rather than text. For a normal view of the full release notes, see this same announcement on the forums!)  https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1475.0




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Offline Asid

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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #17 on: September 21, 2020, 01:07:36 AM »
Beta 10.1 "Warlord Forever More"
Mon, 21 September



Not an especially huge changelog here, just a tiny addendum to last week's massive release. Seeing as I wanted to put out a couple of important fixes anyway, I decided to throw in a few other items from the short list that I could get done in a reasonable amount of time, so today we have a mostly QoL-oriented Beta 10.1!

Beta 10 saves from runs in progress are compatible with this release, so you can upgrade/switch over right away to get all the benefits immediately!

Cogmind Beta 10.1 "Warlord Forever More" (200921) changelog:
•   NEW: Removing or dropping a part that will be destroyed due to insufficient space gives a warning and requires confirmation
•   NEW: Matter/energy storage utility descriptions indicate that stored matter can also be extracted directly if on the ground at current position.
•   NEW: Simply waiting long enough in W base is enough to trigger the event without interacting with any other triggers
•   MOD: Field Recycling Units now only collect parts when activated a second time for new COLLECTING mode, also collect more quickly (once/turn)
•   MOD: Field Recycling Units no longer limit parts they'll collect based on remaining scrap storage, always top off regardless of waste
•   MOD: Borebot Coring immunity is now full Critical immunity
•   MOD: Swarm Drones now melt down if parent destroyed or lost bay
•   MOD: Updated core reset interactions with Beta 10's new extended endings
•   MOD: Transport Network Couplers and Trojans relaying 0b10 bot positions now only report active bots
•   FIX: Some conditions for a certain scoresheet history log message were not being checked against one of the new endings [JackNine]
•   FIX: [Player 2 mode] Crash on bringing Player 2 to one of the new endings [Minty]
•   FIX: Multitile robot AI update in Beta 10 caused Behemoths to sometimes fail to return to their original guard location after losing all targets [Tone]
•   FIX: Q-Series were unable to relaunch drones after the first retrieval
•   FIX: Direct dropping currently attached Storage Unit containing items did not give warning or require confirmation like unequipping to inventory did
•   FIX: Unequipping a part under certain conditions did not deduct energy
•   FIX: Beta 10 fix to improve rapid label closing via Escape broke both advanced options: disableEscMenuAccessKeyboard, disableEscMenuAccessMouse

QoL

Field Recycling Units have a new mode to help avoid accidental situations where it might eat something you actually wanted to pick up but forgot that your FRU was active and munching away. Now like overloading a part you simply toggle it a second time to go from activated (processing accumulated matter) to the next step, collecting (eating parts under you!). In this mode it will show in a brighter color as well have a special tag.



General FRU usage was made even more friendly by not caring about wasted resources--just run over stuff to suck it up, even if it will overflow the unit's capacity.

And hooray for yet more warnings! Dropping parts will now warn if there isn't enough room to do so, in which case the result will be to crush it.



As scheduled, leaderboards were reset just last week the day after Beta 10 released. No need to reset again--10.1 and 10 will remain on the same board.


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Offline Asid

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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #18 on: October 30, 2020, 02:43:37 AM »
Beta 10.2 "Forbidden Lore: Cogmind the ARG"
Thu, 29 October 2020



It's a special event for Halloween, and more!

Starting today and for the entire next month, playing Cogmind automatically enters a new mode built as part of a Cogmind/roguelike/tech-themed ARG. Unlike previous special modes, this one doesn't actually make sweeping gameplay changes, but instead challenges you to hunt for clues with help from forbiddenlore.gridsagegames.com, scouring the game and internet for passwords to special lore. More on that later...

As you'll see in the changelog, this release is clearly much bigger than just the event, scoping larger than planned as I started early on work to make some of the balance adjustments scheduled for Beta 11. There is still a lot more to come on that front, but a few items were either more urgent, or just things I felt like prioritizing a bit to see how they pan out as considerations regarding the bigger areas of the upcoming rebalance continue to get hashed out on Discord and the GSG forums.

Beta 10.2 also includes a bit of new content, but I'll be leaving that for players to discover.
Cogmind Beta 10.2 "Forbidden Lore: Cogmind the ARG" (201030) changelog:


•   NEW: Unique Halloween mode for 2020, automatically activates on 10/29 for anyone who has played at least 10 runs (lasts through November)
•   NEW: Command line argument "-forceMode:Halloween2020" (or "-forceMode:ForbiddenLore") to enable the Halloween mode from 2020, regardless of system date
•   NEW: [Forbidden Lore mode] Hunt for clues with help from forbiddenlore.gridsagegames.com to scour the game and internet for passwords to special lore
•   NEW: 1 new prototype robot
•   NEW: 1 new weapon
•   NEW: Most door-access terminals in 0b10 converted to new Door Terminal prop
•   NEW: Hostile 0b10 bots that lose track of Cogmind raise alert
•   NEW: Relay Coupler [NC] combined with Signal Jamming RIF ability also blocks busy Engineer calls for reinforcements
•   NEW: Escape key recenters view on Cogmind if currently following drone
•   NEW: Advanced Commands help for message log includes Shift-Alt-z for note-taking
•   NEW: Version check now includes build number, allowing for in-game notifications about smaller unannounced updates
•   NEW: Screenshots of difficulty selection, title screen, and intro sequence have unique filenames
•   MOD: Special-purpose 0b10 terminal functionality limited to locally listed hacks, and special manual hacks where applicable
•   MOD: W base defenses changed
•   MOD: Data Cores can no longer be stolen by Master Tearclaws
•   MOD: Programmers require an active Remote Datajack to hack targets
•   MOD: Programmers no longer hack targets once disarmed
•   MOD: Sensor layout as learned from a certain NPC's data core behaves differently
•   MOD: Field Lobotomy Kit no longer works on unpowered, unconnected, or broken bots
•   MOD: Movement due to ramming and knockback makes all the same checks regular movement entails, ensuring the same results in terms of environmental factors
•   MOD: Ramming an adjacent target is no longer a valid way to immediately escape stasis
•   MOD: Ramming drones without destroying them no longer produces matter
•   MOD: Base chance for all Recall() hacks reduced by 10%
•   MOD: Master Thief encounters occur under different circumstances
•   MOD: Only Master Thieves capable of stealing from inventory and prioritizing target parts
•   MOD: Base steal chance of all Tearclaws reduced
•   MOD: Thieves have innate bonus to using Tearclaws
•   MOD: Nerfed CR-A16's weapon
•   MOD: Terrabomb reduced to 1 slot
•   MOD: locate_prototypes effect limited to a range of 15
•   MOD: Threat Obfuscation RIF ability level progression effect reduced from 25,50,75 to 25,40,50
•   MOD: Armor Integrity Analyzer effect description clarified to specify no impact on any area of effect attacks, rather than singling out launchers
•   MOD: Transmission Jammer toggle animation highlighting of jammed bots changed from red to yellow
•   MOD: Core Cannon critical hit chance reduced to 0%
•   MOD: Satisfying the conditions for a Warlord response from cave seals overrides the effect of core reset
•   MOD: Launcher-using bots take ally resistances into account when deciding whether to fire on targets in close proximity
•   MOD: Extended game C prefab added in Beta 10 reduced in size, composition adjusted
•   MOD: Map export images prefix filename with current world seed
•   MOD: Font config file format updated to maintain compatibility with engine changes
•   FIX: Murdering more than one Exile did not count any beyond the first in the scoresheet for the Uniques/NPCs Destroyed tally [zxc]
•   FIX: Hostiles would not attack unconnected drones [zxc]
•   FIX: Unconnected drones could follow through map exits [zxc]
•   FIX: Using a Reconstructor while standing on a Slip Node moved to the side instead of remaining at the same position [zxc]
•   FIX: Dormant bots ignored enemy cloaking effect when checking for wakeup [zxc]
•   FIX: C-40 Crushers might get stuck and fail to pathfind to otherwise reachable target [Valguris]
•   FIX: Was possible to simultaneously activate two Remote Datajacks by removing a launcher while autoUnreadyLauncher option active [Valguris]
•   FIX: Robots disabled while transitioning into/out of siege mode would allow the process to finish even while still disabled [Vectis]
•   FIX: Ally with PICKUP or COLLECT order could overflow inventory capacity if final acquired item is multislot [Vectis]
•   FIX: Recalled squads, coupler squads, and fabrication retrieval Haulers could be blocked by a Sentry standing on their intended exit [MTF, JackNine, Tone]
•   FIX: Beta 10 caused Transmission Jammers to no longer block non-combat robot calls for reinforcements in certain situations [MTF, JackNine, Terminus]
•   FIX: Core reset interactions with Beta 10's new extended endings was broken, fixed in earlier silent hotfix [GJ, Terminus]
•   FIX: Beta 10 part drop destruction warning system caused Go Naked command to leave one part attached if insufficient space to drop everything [GJ]
•   FIX: Self-destructing before depth -9 reused total score from previous full run in same session on game over screen [Hippasus]
•   FIX: Log messages for ramming terrain and machines did not match up with the type of method used [MTF]
•   FIX: Siege mode did not prevent ramming terrain or robots [NikolayAg]
•   FIX: Matter decay due to overheating was deducting energy instead [aoemica]
•   FIX: Beta 10 new endings broke game over screenshot tags for w8 and several types of losses [CaptainWinky]
•   FIX: [Player 2 mode] Player 2 situational dialogue typo [sterv]
•   FIX: Ally with a PICKUP order would move to nearby Scrap and Derelict Logs even though unable to acquire them


(I didn't highlight "more important" entries in the changelog like I normally do, since the vast majority were being highlighted anyway when I went to do that :P)

Saves from earlier versions are incompatible with Beta 10.2, but even if you're on Steam and Cogmind automatically updates, Beta 10/10.1 is still available via its own legacy branch and you can roll back to finish a run in progress first if you like.

As with any other release, I might do quick unannounced hotfixes in the coming hours or days if players discover/report something new and urgent (the chance is somewhat higher with 10.2 because this release went without the usual prerelease playtesting by Patrons to keep it a surprise for everyone). We now have an even more specific version check system based on build number, so if you're playing and have the News feature active, it'll remind when you're playing without the most recent hotfix.



Let the ARG Begin!

Cogmind is pretty big on lore, creating a deeper world with its various factions, NPCs, and the stories they share. And there's so much more room out there! In the lore you can already find references to pieces of the world which don't currently exist, some of them likely to happen one day (some of them guaranteed :P), but reliable information is spotty. This Halloween event will fill a few gaps and also give glimpses of other locations and inhabitants of Tau Ceti IV.

Starting from the event's home page, at the bottom you'll see your first hint. Hints suggest where in the game world you'll find either a password or another clue as to how to obtain the password, and with that password you can follow the link on the event page to the next level, which will also reward you with FORBIDDEN LORE (and usually a bit of art to go with it). For simplicity the username at every level is always simply "cogmind", it's the password that will be unique each time and that's what you'll have to figure out. In-game clues can take a variety of forms, but are always presented as some sort of text, be it NPC dialogue, a special announcement, etc.

Although I know at least a few people who could definitely complete this entire challenge on their own, not everyone will be capable of figuring out every step alone. Don't be afraid to ask the community for tips or additional hints along the way at various levels where you need it. I'm sure there'll be plenty of discussion and help available on the Discord.

Working together with others to solve the mysteries would also make it easier to rise through the levels more quickly, since multiple runs will be required to follow every hint. I suggest using a new password on the site immediately after discovering it, in case the next hint is somewhere still within reach in your current run, in order to achieve it more quickly.

This being an ARG, most of the passwords are actually found outside the game itself.

Good luck :)

ARG Addendum

Shout out to PlasticHeart for putting together the CogFont based on fonts developed for the game, which came in quite handy when making the event website :D

Forbidden Lore mode will automatically activate for you on new runs started on or after 10/29 (through November), if you've played at least 10 runs before.

If you want to play beyond the end of the event, or regardless of your run count, you can still force it by adding a command line parameter when running COGMIND.EXE: "-forceMode:ForbiddenLore". Within Steam this is handled by going to Cogmind > Properties > Set Launch Options, like this example from Player2 mode earlier this year:



(Note that although the event mode will be accessible after the period is over, and likely also in future versions, but I can't 100% guarantee that it will be fully completable forever since, as an ARG, advancing relies on the presence of information found outside the game, elsewhere on the internet.)

If you want to play a regular run during the event*, you can suppress date-based event triggering by adding the "-noSpecialMode" command line parameter:



If the event mode is active, you'll see a notice in your message log on startup.

*(though again this mode doesn't really affect much in the way of gameplay, even though runs in this mode will technically go to a separate leaderboard)

Rebalancing

Beta 10.2 includes a fair number of nerfs, and the changelog itself isn't nearly as balanced as I like to keep it (an equal helping of both buffs and nerfs/new features is best), but we'll be getting plenty more buffs and fun stuff to play with in Beta 11, and in this release I just took advantage of the opportunity to prioritize responding to areas the community has been cheesing the hardest by moving up planned changes, or just increasing the overall challenge level of various parts of the game.

Also a number of the nerfed bits here were intentionally introduced as OP features with the intention of tweaking them after seeing how they were used.

On that note, against the trend there is a new potentially OP weapon you might be able to get your hands on ;)



To address some of the biggest changes here...

All those easily-hackable single-tile door terminals that were a major security liability for 0b10 are a thing of the past. They now do nothing more than open their door, as opposed to providing one after another weak backdoor into the mapwide system :P (i.e., no indirect hacks there). All such terminals now also have unique names so they're even more recognizable at a distance, the majority simply being called "Door Terminal," although this change also applies to the other instances of special-purpose terminals that control something nearby.



Prior to now, with assistance from door terminals a good hacker could very easily end up with far more terminal resources than they could reasonably need and exhaust, especially in certain branches with lots of blast doors. Now instead of simply running out of hacking target ideas, these builds may in some cases have to be a little more selective, or in some cases have a (slightly? xD) harder time getting access to a suitable Terminal on short notice.

This change does also negatively impact builds that could only effectively use low-level Terminals to begin with, but those builds have had numerous buffs over previous releases to begin with.

Another change related mostly to flight-hack builds is that alert is now also raised when enemies lose track of you! The primary hostile interaction for gaining alert has traditionally been through destruction, but if you're zipping all over the place frequently attracting attention then slipping away it makes sense that the Complex should respond to that, too.

I'm really interested to see the results of this change, which could add a bit of pressure to flight runs and make stealth approaches that much more enticing rather than simply outrunning everything but then safely remaining on the same map. The amount of alert involved here might be further tweaked, but we'll see how it pans out in the current release first.

Also the current result of high alert accrued via this method will be assault dispatches, as usual, but the response will be different in future versions--I just haven't gotten to that point and added this bit first.

Programmer allies were nerfed by making them unable to hack if disarmed, a sad loss because it was quite fun to have a disarmed hacker friend literally owning everything, when it happens naturally, but players were starting to intentionally create these OP allies so that behavior had to be removed and put them on par with hostile Programmers.

Master Thieves got a pretty significant overhaul. They've been in the game for a while now but no one was really taking advantage of them until much more recently. Even more changes are probably in order, but the related mechanics are no longer quite so abusable.

A range of individual parts were adjusted as per the changelog, mostly nerfs of various degrees, although you've also got single-slot Terrabombs now, which will make those a lot more enticing (technically that and a few other items on the list were modified as part of silent post-release 10.1 updates, but are included in the changelog this time around since they were otherwise not recorded or announced here).

There's not a ton of QoL like we usually have each release, but I did add Escape key support for recentering on Cogmind while cycling through multiple drone views with Enter:



News

Cogminder aoemica has built a wonderful tool, dubbed Cog-Minder, a very convenient site to filter and search through Cogmind's many items:



Notice the Spoiler button there which can be toggled on to include everything, even uniques and other special parts you'll only find in mid-/late-game branches or the extended game. You can leave that off if you're just starting out and want an unspoiled experience but would like to examine "regular" parts.

Over on my Twitch channel I streamed my first Beta 10 run, a hover run that eventually went on to obtain one of the new endings:
 



That's the first of five videos, a looooong run because 1) it hit a ton of locations and 2) there was a lot of discussion along the way :P. (More recently on the channel I'm trying out the space roguelike Prospector, which is pretty cool.)

Starting this week over on Patreon we're also voting for secondary QoL features that patrons want to prioritize for Beta 11, so the results from that should probably be known by the time the next announcement comes around.

I leave you with the amazing Mobile Combat Recycling Unit by Zyalin!



We know what happened after a good year or more of players joking about the possibility of "Combat Swarmers" (TRACKERS!). Well, the long-running joke that followed that is "Combat Recyclers." Hmm...



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Offline Asid

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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #19 on: October 09, 2021, 11:40:27 PM »
SITREP Saturday #49: A World Rebuilt
Sat, 9 October 2021



So what has Grid Sage Games (and by Grid Sage Games I mean me :P) been up to in recent months... Those who follow the dev blog, my streams/YouTube, or Discord will be familiar with most of what I'm writing here today, but I know some of you prefer to get your news here, so let's catch you up!

In the last SITREP wherein I half joked about this being "Cogmind 2," the summary of our next major update is still just as relevant:

Read on: https://steamcommunity.com/games/722730/announcements/detail/3022469953848529672
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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #20 on: December 04, 2021, 11:30:47 PM »
Annual Review: Year 8 of the Cogmind
Sat, 4 December 2021



As Cogmind enters its 9th year of continuous development, let’s once again take a look at the past year of progress in our typical annual review, now available on the blog  ! Beta 11 is approaching completion, Patreon support is looking (really) up, and we've finally met the requirements for two new factions to come this year, as foretold by the Forbidden Lore ARG...

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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #21 on: April 22, 2022, 11:38:08 PM »
Cogmind Beta 11.1 "Heavy Dawn"
Fri, 22 April 2022



We've got a little update for Beta 11, not the full 11.1 I was originally planning, but there are a number of fixes and tweaks here that'd be nice to have out sooner rather than later, so here you go! (I also threw in a rare new weapon for fun.)

Cogmind Beta 11.1 "Heavy Dawn" (220422) changelog:

    NEW: 1 new part
    NEW: Base slow move speed warning threshold now adjustable (advanced.cfg: slowMoveSpeed)
    NEW: Containment Facilitator info includes effect description
    NEW: Context help and manual explicitly indicate how multislot parts factor into target selection for impact damage
    NEW: [Player 2 mode] Additional situations with more dialogue lines (total = 773)
    MOD: Multiple Operators cannot be stationed at Terminals near one another
    MOD: Part auto-replacement requires that two weapons deal same damage type rather than only belonging to same item category
    MOD: DSF lockdown no longer triggered by extermination/assault tracking or Heavy class active sensor detection, requires direct hostile contact
    MOD: Maximum security response to Exo build no longer triggered by extermination/assault tracking, requires direct hostile contact
    MOD: All standard forms of jamming block DSF access lockdown response
    MOD: Certain autonomous weapon systems will not fire on their creators
    MOD: Asb. Focal Cannon integrity increased from 150 to 155
    MOD: Loss of part data due to system corruption also removes custom tags on matching items not currently in possession
    MOD: Attempting to recall newly-invalid guided waypoints instead clears them and shows warning message
    MOD: Exo build purely exchanges lost slots for additional innate energy/dissipation rather than potentially overriding previous permanent modifiers
    MOD: Exo build worth much more than usual formula for scoresheet peak state purposes
    MOD: Explorer mode Fabricators no longer automatically trace and investigate BUILD commands hacked without an Authchip
    MOD: Loading save/quicksave or entering new map blocks actions for 1 second to prevent potential issues prior to full UI initialization
    FIX: Gallery item tile/ASCII color affected by knowledge loss in current run in progress [R-26 Lightspeed]
    FIX: Dialogue during particular W base sequence of events might appear in unexpected situation [R-26 Lightspeed]
    FIX: EMDS lore entry reflected pre-Beta 11 stats [R-26 Lightspeed]
    FIX: W-25 Informer analysis referred to older sensor range [R-26 Lightspeed]
    FIX: Mouseover labels for individual robots outside FOV positioned over unknown map locations did not show [R-26 Lightspeed]
    FIX: Asb. Alloy Leg integration completion while in siege mode resulted in failure to update part name color [R-26 Lightspeed]
    FIX: Exo build failed to report heat dissipation increase when activated [aoemica]
    FIX: Enemies losing Cogmind position while out of view still flashed '!' when appearing in FOV, regardless of whether actually know about Cogmind [aoemica]
    FIX: High/Max Security/Sterilization disabling of Chute Traps only affected the first in each array [aoemica]
    FIX: Arrows and numpad were not properly scrolling item search result list [zxc]
    FIX: Part range highlight showed on map while item search UI active and cursor hovering over part in underlying window [zxc]
    FIX: Fabrication BUILD hacking without an Authchip was still capable of frying hackware as a feedback effect (unintended) [3.14]
    FIX: Trap Detection section in manual still referenced old Structural Scanner mechanic [3.14]
    FIX: New Special Commands menu "RIF Abilities" button could only successfully open the info using keyboard instead of mouse [Valguris]
    FIX: GOLEM build rate had indirectly dropped from 3 to 2 [Valguris]
    FIX: History log recorded parts stolen by any thief as if a Master Thief [JackNine]
    FIX: Terminus 12x12 tileset missing new Cutter class (no affect on appearance in game) [Ape]
    FIX: Manually setting alternative FPS cap aside from 60 would reset cap if toggled on/off again while running [Luigi]
    FIX: Crash on using a Core Expander within milliseconds of loading save/quicksave [Mitchell]
    FIX: Megawrench repair of attached faulty part did not immediately remove prefix in part list [
    [/\ ---===e]]
    FIX: Could not mass label robot scan records outside FOV in some cases if detected purely via Sensor Drone [Youngster]
    FIX: Possible crash on new Beta 11 behavior (spoiler) related to a particular rare NPC ally [Benjamin]
    FIX: Particular broken NPC might be given a line of dialogue in a certain extended game scenario (spoilers) [MTF]
    FIX: Tactical HUD composite energy upkeep values can now show values between -1.0 and 0, even though they will not be subtracted due to truncation [ktur]
    FIX: Extended map (spoiler) could sometimes spawn a certain type of conditional robot inside a machine [Mitchell]
    FIX: Fabricator LOAD chance always showed 100% if attached Authchip applicable to currently loaded schematic [Maiker]
    FIX: Explosive machines outside unheard/unseen due to distance would set off explosion for each piece, rather than once for the entire machine
    FIX: External commands customization file named one item search UI input "Scroll Down" instead of "Scroll Up"
    FIX: New example in damage resistance context help had incorrect info regarding negative resistances



Saves are not compatible with Beta 11, but as usual if you're on Steam and it'll autoupdate you on the default branch, there's a new legacy branch you can roll back to to complete a run in progress if you like.


Have a cool animation put together by Maiker and shared on the Cogmind Discord :D
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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #22 on: December 04, 2022, 08:51:06 PM »
Annual Review: Year 9 of the Cogmind
Sun, 4 December 2022



Time for another annual review! 2022 saw Cogmind's 10th anniversary, celebrated by its largest-ever release, and Beta 12 is still in development but getting quite large itself... Read about Year 9 of the Cogmind on the dev blog https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2022/12/year-9-of-the-cogmind/ , concluding with the usual look at the months ahead.

WARLORD FOREVER!



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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #23 on: December 29, 2022, 11:50:28 PM »
Cogmind Beta 11.2 (221229a)
Thu, 29 December 2022



I finally had a chance to do my first serious Polymind run, yesterday on stream (archived here, a win!), but the important part is that that run combined with reports from other players over the past few days gave me plenty of material to work with regarding improvements for the event. I look forward to trying out lots of different play styles in future Polymind runs (I used only a handful of classes since I'm partial to Heavies :P), but here's what we've got so far for this update, available now (saves are compatible, so you can switch over from a Polymind run in progress if you like):

Cogmind Beta 11.2 (221229a) changelog:
•   NEW: [Polymind mode] Cogmind also gains host's innate mass support characteristics, if applicable
•   NEW: [Polymind mode] Waiting in an armed host without enough matter to fire current volley gradually generates matter up to required amount
•   NEW: [Polymind mode] Bump adjacent disabled robots to rewire even while controlling unsuspicious 0b10 host
•   NEW: [Polymind mode] Minesweeper host can lower suspicion by disarming or reprogramming 0b10-installed traps to appear busy with relevant tasks
•   NEW: [Polymind mode] Superbehemoth special ability also works while used as host
•   NEW: [Polymind mode] Multitile hosts can autocollect resources anywhere under them, not just from their top-left position
•   MOD: [Polymind mode] Waiting no longer increases suspicion outside 0b10-controlled areas
•   MOD: [Polymind mode] Targeted dispatches (e.g. assaults) switch to wandering target area if while en route Cogmind drops suspicion below Very High
•   MOD: [Polymind mode] Dormant 0b10 bots no longer sometimes wake up when Cogmind controlling unsuspicious 0b10 host within visual range
•   MOD: [Polymind mode] Data Miner help no longer available if swapping with them while controlling 0b10 host
•   MOD: [Polymind mode] Increased Protomatter cost of Trackers and Combat Programmers
•   MOD: [Polymind mode] Recycler hosts no longer modify suspicion based on item collection/dropping
•   MOD: [Polymind mode] Increased effect of Recycler item delivery on suspicion level
•   MOD: [Polymind mode] Increased effect of Operator suspicion reduction method
•   MOD: [Polymind mode] Adjusted Mechanic host actions effect on suspicion, added more explicit deconstruction limitations
•   MOD: [Polymind mode] No suspicion increase from misfires targeting terrain
•   MOD: Minesweeper matter capacity increased to 50
•   FIX: New Force Melee mode also being toggled by regular force melee input [ktur]
•   FIX: [Polymind mode] Automatic part sorting produced visual glitches for some hosts with zero slots of a given type [ktur, DeadlyBlueApples]
•   FIX: [Polymind mode] While in an unsuspicious 0b10-affiliated host could also swap with hostile non-0b10 robots [DeadlyBlueApples]
•   FIX: [Polymind mode] Protomatter could be picked up as a normal item once storage cap reached [Terminus]
•   FIX: [Polymind mode] Mechanics used to fit multislot parts on ally with insufficient slots then taken as host would crash [CaptainWinky]
•   FIX: [Polymind mode] Top 5 Hosts by Kills scoresheet records not always complete [aoemica]


Not much to say about the details besides what's listed above, but here's a quick shot of what should happen if you can throw off suspicion when a targeted assault was already on its way to you!



The leaderboards were spun up a day after the event began, and you can check those out here. Those will be running until the end of the event period (1/7), after which we can check out some aggregate stats and maybe some of the individual accomplishments. Several wins were recorded in the first day, and we already even have a couple extended wins as well :D



(The full list of Polymind runs can as usual be found in the version run list, for example here for Beta 11.2.) https://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/scores/versions/Beta11.2.html

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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #24 on: March 11, 2023, 10:58:51 PM »
Cogmind Beta 12 (230310)
Fri, 10 March 2023



I hope the scrap gods are treating you well, or the garrison encounter gods, whichever the case may be! In the week since the latest major Beta 12 release went out, I've been working on some adjustments on the side. Saves are compatible, hence no new minor version number, just a new build number...

Cogmind Beta 12 (230310) changelog:

    MOD: DSFs now remain accessible even after emerging from a Garrison
    MOD: Encrypted Comm Array explicitly fries itself in more plot situations
    MOD: Weapon constructs take projectile count into account when setting or updating critical strike values
    MOD: Weapon constructs lose Burn critical effect if heatTransfer negated through some other means
    MOD: Spotters only care about armed hostiles
    MOD: Cargo Storage integrity increased from 700 to 1000
    FIX: Zionite tip regarding Spotter behavior still gave Recycling map location despite Beta 12 rewrite [lyra]
    FIX: One Relay Coupler-related lore source needed adjusting due to coupler changes [lyra]
    FIX: Potential crash on entering a Garrison during a certain rare event [Finestep]
    FIX: Any Encrypted Comm update's reported force multiplier remaining unchanged since previous report always displayed current value of 1.00 [ktur]
    FIX: Modified propulsion constructs could seemingly retain siege or burnout capabilities after switching to incompatible type [Terminus]
    FIX: Entering a new map did not reset robot momentum [Luigi]
    FIX: Typos [Cracklepappy]


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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #25 on: December 23, 2023, 12:03:21 AM »
Annual Review: Year 10 of the Cogmind
Fri, 22 December 2023



Well then, we're well into Cogmind's 10th year now xD

As is tradition I've put up an annual review over on the dev blog, looking back over this year's milestones and also giving a heads up about what's to come. Check that out for more details about larger fonts, map zooming, the Scraptown expansion and more.

Worth extracting here is the video from my stream this week, in which I do the first real playtest of map zooming and related features:





We zoomin' with a dev test run in the IDE! The next Beta 13 prerelease is soon to be completed, so it's time to do some real playtesting with special emphasis on the map zoom function and all the...

(Unannounced impromptu stream, and I was playing in the dev build, so in that sense not quite a typical stream, or even typical play since I was just fooling around, but... still didn't die despite doing a bunch of random stuff and wasting turns demonstrating features or causing chaos, was fun :P)
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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #26 on: February 04, 2024, 02:29:21 PM »
SITREP Saturday #53: Full UI Upscaling
Sat, 3 February 202



With map zooming and lots of other work out of the way, early last month I began building the optional new UI layout to make everything larger! I first shared the specifications last year, and more recently have been writing about them as relevant architectural work got underway in earnest.

That series began with the new year, where you can read in Part 1 about the history and theory behind Cogmind's UI layout, where it's been and where it's going.



Read on: https://steamcommunity.com/games/722730/announcements/detail/4015590568643280492
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Re: Cogmind
« Reply #27 on: March 12, 2024, 12:02:02 AM »
Cogmind Expansion, Price Increase "Coming Soon"
Mon, 11 March 2024



It's finally time! For 1.0? No, of course not (that we hit it back in 2017 is just a poorly kept secret), what I mean is raising the price to better reflect what Cogmind is: hundreds of hours of content and lovingly-crafted roguelike adventure and storytelling. I don't explicitly advertise the worldbuilding's diversity and surprises, since that is best left to discovery, but it's been enough to challenge and entertain some folks for even thousands of hours. (Cogmind's screenshots represent only a small fraction of what you'll really find out there, for the reality you'd have to check out spoiler sections of the community, or some videos/streams.)

And the scope continues to grow.

I've dedicated more than the past decade of my life to full-time development of Cogmind. Just me, since it's not like this could support additional folks--it can only barely cover frugal old me :P. I will hopefully, likely, continue to do so for the next couple years. Content is planned out even beyond that, but who knows if it will still be sustainable by then?

That said, as stated before I've never wanted to declare 1.0 then release all my expansions as DLC. Even though that technically makes a lot of business sense and would be significantly more sustainable, I think it leads to a worse player and community experience overall. Instead, I chose to start a Patreon some years ago to help keep the lights on. Although paling in comparison to what DLC would bring in, that has worked out well enough, so once again a special thanks to all of you patrons!

To the point at hand, Cogmind's price will be going up next month. There's only a relatively small window within which to do this without conflicting with other Steam events, and that period is April, so April it is. The new base price will be set to $24.99, and no don't expect that to mean deeper discounts going forward. The price isn't being raised to allow for greater discounts, it's being raised simply to raise the price :P

Some may question the idea of a price increase during "Early Access," but don't worry, the price will likely go up again (!) later and Cogmind isn't really
Early Access, anyway, we're waaaay past that. Yes that label does keep some people from buying in since they're skeptical of anything marked EA, an unfortunate side effect of all the poorly planned or executed projects that don't manage it well. Cogmind could've completely skipped Early Access to begin with, or stop development at any point, and be fine in terms of completion.* (Cogmind was publicly released for over two years before coming to Steam in the first place! The date on the Steam page is not Cogmind's actual release date, though many informational sites will assume and repeat that...) We'll open the gates to those folks eventually, but the next couple themed expansions cover at least four more betas
before that's even a consideration. The third still-to-come major expansion could be released before or after that threshold (still undecided), it's essentially just a pure marketing decision when to use the "1.0" label.

*that said, I'm super happy, as I'm sure others are, that we've finally been in development long enough, with enough new QoL and engine features, to support map zooming and full UI upscaling--that was BIG


Some historical metrics, for context:




For more historical info and graphs, you can also check out my annual reviews, one from each year for the past 10 years so far.

As for the next expansion, to focus on an important new location, it has technically already begun in part as a portion of Beta 13, and much more than that was completed last year, but that version detoured off into the map zoom and UI upscaling features arena so that more people could join us on this ongoing journey. With all of the new folks on board now, it's time to get this train steaming into exciting new territory again.

We're soon to increase the number of items in Cogmind by nearly 7%, a nice chunk considering we're already over 1,000, along with new maps, new factions, new abilities, yet another large increase in the number of encounters... the works. It'll be like Cogmind alpha content injections all over again, said in the strongest attempting-to-contain-my-hype tone possible :)



So yeah, in summary, price going up next month, and fun new releases coming, too, but... those not quite next month :P. They won't take forever, though--we'll be seeing somewhat faster releases down the line!

Oh yeah and there's still one more discount coming up later this week, so before the increase in price.


Memestrike

Since even after using an abbreviated version of the Beta 13 release notes we still hit Steam's length limit, I didn't have a chance to append any community stuff to our last announcement, so I'll just do that here...

MrMesh shared this wicked painting of a Cogmind scene--such a lively piece that also captures some great details! (via Roguelikes/Cogmind Discord)



A pair of awesome meme videos also dropped recently, including one titled "The Cogmind Beta 13 Experience" by Youngster (not very spoilery, but fun and nicely done!) and another dubbed "Cogmind Slander" by u/dogawesome, which is a good summary of a lot of Cogmind experiences, and in that sense it contains a lot of spoilers, but
probably makes relatively little sense to anyone who hasn't actually played, or moreover played a lot. There's a huge number of lore and content references in there though, for those who can relate ;)

After releasing some patches for Beta 13, I also streamed the late-game portion of a run I had started on my own. It was fairly chaotic as usual, by choice :)

Some map-wide sterilization may have occurred prior to the start of the stream, and we know that in Cogmind destruction often begets ever greater levels of destruction, so yeah, continued remodeling was in the cards for a while.



We later used a hidden spoiler area to switch to 100% stealth for the remainder of the run (okay, except for the times our friends murdered everyone...)

That run was able to temporarily take 6th place since the leaderboards were reset for Beta 13, but has already been pushed down to 10th as more folks finish up their first runs with the new version, and at only 64k will probably not even sit within the top 20 for too long :P
 

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