Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[AlStar]

Note to self: while it is always fun to try new things - just for the hell of it and/or to see if it opens up new lore - apparently taking a pot shot at the Data Miner is not a good idea. Managed to end an otherwise promising run on that one. Ah well, picked up both "Exterminator" and "I Survived The Infestation", so it wasn't totally pointless.

[Kyzrati]

Hehe, attacking the DM can actually be a powerful strategy that some of the best players use for certain reasons (certainly not me, but them!) (but yeah it might hurt--a lot--if you don't have a plan for what comes afterward )

[Kyzrati]

Item tagging! This is a rather common feature for classic roguelikes, the ability to tag items with player-specified text as a memory aid. Tagging is usually a part of the item identification process, and due to the nature of Cogmind's items and ID system it's almost never useful, hence the absence of a tagging feature all these years. However there are a handful of special cases towards the end of the game where you may know what a particular unidentified item is (based on where you found it) but not want to immediately attach-ID it.

Here are a couple silly examples of tagging inventory items.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And here's a more realistic use (albeit with a silly tag), also demonstrating how the tag appears in the item info window itself.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm sure this feature could also be used for just fun screenshots and jokes, too

There's more in SITREP #27, including new details about the robot hacking system, though I'll be covering that here later with a full blog post at some point.

(Also 10% off for the the next couple weeks both on Steam and the site.)

[Retropunch]

I know it isn't as prevalent in cogmind as stuff is often destroyed, but I often like using tagging as more of an 'honour' to things that have served me well. Broadsword +2 isn't anywhere near as cool as 'Goblin Reaver'

[Kyzrati]

That's true! I haven't gotten any feedback on this system yet (and seen how people really use it) since it's not in circulation, but I was wondering how many people would bring something like that up. As is the tags are mainly to resolve the issue of not having a way to distinguish multiple unidentified artifacts in inventory, they currently only apply while the item is in inventory.

We could take this further and allow complete *replacement* of names which might be fun, too. (Though in a lot of cases items aren't used for as long as you might in other roguelikes!)

[Retropunch]

That's true! I haven't gotten any feedback on this system yet (and seen how people really use it) since it's not in circulation, but I was wondering how many people would bring something like that up. As is the tags are mainly to resolve the issue of not having a way to distinguish multiple unidentified artifacts in inventory, they currently only apply while the item is in inventory.

We could take this further and allow complete *replacement* of names which might be fun, too. (Though in a lot of cases items aren't used for as long as you might in other roguelikes!)

I'd prefer to allow complete replacement - although I think the best way would be to have it as a suffix as in: Light Machine gun - 'slave slayer' or something. With cogmind you need to be very aware of what you have, so it'd be nice to have both.

[Kyzrati]

Yeah the thing about adding it as a suffix is that you wouldn't be able to see it for a lot of items, considering the average name length and the UI layout which is optimized to be able to show more or less that and nothing more. Here it works for the unidentified items because they never fill the space, but notice how even there it's only room enough for a little bit of text rather than some complete name. This is why following your comment I had an idea of perhaps replacement. Anyway, we'll see how people use it!

[Retropunch]

Yeah the thing about adding it as a suffix is that you wouldn't be able to see it for a lot of items, considering the average name length and the UI layout which is optimized to be able to show more or less that and nothing more. Here it works for the unidentified items because they never fill the space, but notice how even there it's only room enough for a little bit of text rather than some complete name. This is why following your comment I had an idea of perhaps replacement. Anyway, we'll see how people use it!

Yeah it'd be a difficult one from the UI perspective - maybe you could do something like a rename but if you hovered over it/pressed a button it'd show the original name? Not sure what the best approach would be, but anything that lets me personalise particularly good items would be well received!

[Kyzrati]

Got it, will keep this in mind

[Kyzrati]

Robot hacking UI is now implemented!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now "all" that's left is to code the dozens of hacking effects xD

(I've continued last week's introduction to the new hacking system here.)

[Kyzrati]

Well, I found more UI to work on xD

Spoiler: Autocompletion + buffer for robot hacking (click to show/hide)

Also got... sidetracked with a little kinetic knockback <3

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

But really, next week I'll actually be doing hacks themselves! (more on this week's progress here)

[Kyzrati]

New mechanic, new items!

Spoiler: 1.67 MB of gifs/images (click to show/hide)

Kinecellerators are especially effective when combined with multikinetic volleys, although they could also be useful combined with certain cannons.

As with other weapon modification utilities, while active their effects are reflected in the info mode summary.



And of course there are better ones, too

Hack the UI

Most of the week was spent on the robot hacking system, which is coming along nicely. As a further improvement on the earlier hacking interface samples I've been sharing, the header for any Relay Coupler hacks now highlights the remaining value to make that clearer.



I had noticed the potential issue while creating the original mockup, but didn't see any immediate fixes so decided to leave it like that for the time being. And of course as soon as I started sharing gifs there was already a comment about that value not being clear enough, so... yeah, I put some more time into finding a decent solution

Automatic removal of newly-depleted Relay Couplers also comes with its own animation in the parts list.



Hack the Bots

As for the hacks themselves, I was finally able to start implementing them this week, and have finished about one-third of the total. Here are a few samples of what's to come in Beta 7...

"generate_anomaly" attracts all nearby hostiles, in case you need some company (or have other nefarious purposes)



Like other enemy alert situations, in the easier difficulty modes this also highlights the position of any notified bots.



"generate_echo" is basically an instant one-off long range sensor.



Map walls? map_walls!



Overall, I'd say robot hacking allows for some fun stuff

[Kyzrati]

A bunch more hacks are ready for Beta 7. One of the latest is map_earth:



More samples in this week's SITREP:

[Kyzrati]

There's a complete overview of the new robot hacking system available on the blog now. I happen to have a collage-like version of this one on hand, so rather than mirror the post here I'll just share the image to give you an idea and you can follow the link if you want to check out the details:

[Kyzrati]

GIF highlights from this week's robot hacking progress

Spoiler: map_route (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: show_paths (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: link_fov (click to show/hide)

This week's SITREP has a lot more animations...