Cogmind News

Ironically for a release dubbed "Unchained More," and one that includes an even wider variety of Unchained personalities and tech, folks are generally going to be seeing them "less" overall xD. This is due to the inevitable arrival of CY-PHR, who we'll get to further below...

First though, wow it's been years since we saw a minor version number! Beta 16.1 adds a fair bit of content, but is built primarily to expand upon and improve the beginnings of the new expansion started with Beta 16, which ideally would have been released with this stuff included, but I put it out early to avoid keeping you all waiting too long (plus of course the large number of new achievements alone would provide plenty of diversions!).

This release therefore focuses on rounding out the overall Unchained experience before we head into adding their HQ and also, yes, yet more of them ;)



While I won't be spoiling all the new Unchained, I will say that on meeting them you will likely notice that members of this batch are very clearly avid fans of science fiction (okay there is one oddball in there, but to begin with I did not mean for this group to almost all belong to this particular subcategory of Unchained :P).

Each comes with their own wild new tech which you can theoretically acquire, but at the very least must first face off against prior to said acquisition--new challenges!

But like I said earlier, they were already relatively uncommon (except for a handful of players consistently being very naughty over the long run, or going out of their way to "summon" them), and there will now be far fewer "unexpected" encounters.

One of the side effects of Beta 16 temporarily having a smaller pool of Unchained to work with, and only fledgling systems to drive their encounters, was that there was not as much leeway for matching dispatched types to appropriate situations. This lack of nuance meant that for example "doing a ton of hacking" (really, a lot), including even hacking that was less relevant/important in the bigger picture, could get an Unchained dispatched on you, and naturally they can in many cases be pretty deadly against such a build. Although normally you'd have the intel and means to flee, especially given the advance warning, being chased down in the first place would certainly be a surprise!

According to submitted run data this is actually where about 50% of Unchained encounters originated, not a desirable balance in the long run, but it took [a lot] more work to build the proper Unchained response to extreme hackers. So a huge chunk of "normal" Unchained dispatches we saw in the previous version have been replaced with something else. Such is releasing major content expansions in the middle of working on them :P. And that's about all I'll say on that.

CY-PHR is a sci-fan, too. You'll see.



Are you a fan of the Borg? Because 1B-0RG is a fan of the Borg. Either way, unfortunately you won't have a chance to bond over your fandom, because they want you dead.

So yes, this is one of the Unchained arriving with Beta 16.1, one you may have seen mentioned before if you've browsed Soloparser's Compendium in Scraptown.

Like the other Unchained, they have some cool powerful tech, tech that enables whole new builds/play styles, tech that you can theoretically steal for yourself if you meet and defeat them. Further into the future there will likely be other ways to acquire some types of Unchained tech (other than actually getting hunted by, and defeating, and successfully salvaging them...), but seeing as such a method does not yet exist, in the interest of spicing up this particular version, for a limited time only (to be removed in the next version), there is a way to acquire specifically 1B-0RG's primary tech, the Assimilator, for free. (If you recall, we did this with the Scrap Engine before the UFD Scraplab was added to the world.)

Just visit 4L-MR0's lab in the Subcaves on -10, and there you will find it just lying on the floor. So it is indeed found in more advanced player territory (but also coincidentally in a lore-appropriate location!), since it's not that easy to make use of at first, and is a relatively complex part with by far the longest description of any item in the game xD

See for yourself:



Technically in this version you can get 1B-0RG dispatched on you while you (mysteriously :P) also have his Assimilator, thereby offering a unique opportunity to enjoy some Borg-on-Borg action. Maybe there will be some bonding over a common interest after all!

A lot of the new parts added in this release are Borg-related (they're kind of like a whole new subfaction, just... more centrally controlled), and most of the rest are just generally Unchained-related tech.



Lots of other little updates even for a minor version, just any new rare coincidences that have been recently discovered, or in particular fixes for features/content that was new to Beta 16 (in particular we got all those new achievements). I'll cover some of them in more detail further below.

[h3]Cogmind Beta 16.1 "Unchained More" (260209) changelog (excerpt):[/h3]

• NEW: 4 more Unchained
  
• NEW: 33 new items
  
• NEW: 1 new robot
  
• NEW: 2 new achievements
  
• NEW: 24 pieces of art for all older special parts that cannot be salvaged
  
• NEW: Special parts that cannot be salvaged from robots display new INTEGRATED state, with context help
  
• NEW: Expanded Unchained dialogue system
  
• NEW: With FarCom access, Exiles automatically identify adjacent dangerous Research branch exits
  
• NEW: [Temporary] 1B-0RG's Assimilator always found in Subcaves lab
  
• NEW: Bonus points awarded for "Hunted by Unchained"
  
• NEW: Scoresheet records "Initial UFD Resources" for each map
  
• NEW: Option to represent energy drain in part list energy visualization with orange instead of blue (advanced.cfg: partEnergyGraphAltColor)
  
• NEW: Option to disable all mod-key based keyboard input for Parts window parts (advanced.cfg: blockPartsWindowModKeyInput)
  
• NEW: Contextual tutorial message warning about matter upkeep when attaching power sources with such a cost
  
• NEW: Contextual tutorial message to teach about ramming bots to gain a small amount of matter in some relevant situations
  
• NEW: Contextual tutorial message explaining purpose behind bump melee attack warning while flying
  
• MOD: Unchained announced more quickly in some scenarios
  
• MOD: Surviving Unchained that permanently gave up chase cannot return again for additional triggers
  
• MOD: Added initial stage of nuance to Unchained-triggering behavior detection (more to come)
  
• MOD: Full RIF runs trigger fewer Unchained than before
  
• MOD: Hostile NPCs speaking to Cogmind also become immediately aware and therefore not susceptible to sneak attacks regardless of speed
  
• MOD: Increased but variable leniency for accidental hits on allies
  
• MOD: N-01 Spotter no longer drops parts
  
• MOD: Gui. EMP Blaster now only found in prefabs, redesigned as disposable weapon
  
• MOD: Smartbomb Launcher now a prototype, removed delay
  
• MOD: Electrostorm Shotgun arc reduced from 120 to 90
  
• MOD: Martial strikes and deflection no longer apply to Datajacks
  
• MOD: Golem, Assembler considered Special class, not Derelict
  
• MOD: Data Miner does not redirect investigations for which Cogmind is not near target area, or exterminations/assaults not targeting Cogmind directly
  
• MOD: Using knockback effects to indirectly attack other friendly factions now considered hostile action
  
• MOD: Miss trajectory arcs are similar regardless of aiming at a close or distant spot on the same line of fire
  
• MOD: Unchained will no longer repeat the same dialogue in the same run
  
• MOD: "Betrayal Most Foul" achievement now only triggers for a visible ally
  
• MOD: [RPGLIKE mode] SUBCON Basin size reduced to 2
  
• MOD: [RPGLIKE mode] Cobbler Unit can no longer produce Humpback
  
• MOD: Windows XP (SP3) no longer official supported (theoretically could still work with right setup)
  
• FIX: Windows 7 compatibility temporarily lost due to DLL update [Esven]

For the complete changelog including all bug fixes, see the latest iteration packaged with the game or online here.

Saves from earlier versions are incompatible with Beta 16.1, but even if you're on Steam and Cogmind automatically updates, Beta 16 is still available via its own legacy branch and you can roll back to finish a run in progress first if you like. Cogmind will remind you which branch to use if it finds an old save, and your old save won't be deleted or affected by the update.



Among the new content we have a lot of additional item art, covering any parts that previously had none because they were not obtainable by Cogmind, just used by other robots. The original purpose behind the lack of art was that those parts could not be used, and therefore (years ago) it would be impossible to add them to your item art gallery. Eventually we got the ability to more easily add parts to your collection without even acquiring them by simply Parsing a target robot currently using them, which helped a lot with parts found on challenging or rare enemies, or those that are simply hard to salvage for whatever reason. But previously art-less items remained art-less. Only a tiny minority of items fell into this category, but it was kind of unfortunate to have any at all given that it's possible to add them to the gallery via other means.

Now all* parts have art!

Part of the catalyst for doing this now was that the Borg happen to use a fair number of new custom parts inaccessible to Cogmind, but I wanted to have them represented visually since item art has a way of unifying groups with a certain "personality" to their design. The other reason was that this release comes a little late (I was out of country and managing a release from there would be more problematic, so have been sitting on this for a little while), and therefore had some extra time available to work on other "low-priority" stuff :)

*note that "all" excludes parts used exclusively in special modes, to avoid requiring that those be played in order to complete the gallery collection, the one exception being Protomatter, which I still want to add to the base game in some form at a later time, as indicated in the manual

Some of that part art for "unobtainables" can be found in the following art selection from Beta 16.1--you might be able to guess a few ;)



Even more importantly in this update from a QoL perspective, the not-so-obvious "this robot's using a part with no art so maybe I can't salvage it?" is replaced by a much clearer "INTEGRATED" state indicator, which also includes context help text to explain as much.



In all, as of Beta 16.1 there is now a maximum of 1,334 item entries in the gallery.



Also this release, Gui. EMP Blaster has reached its final form?!

This is an ancient item (Cogmind Alpha 1!) that has since gone through a few balance shifts needed as a result of changes elsewhere, but it turned out to be simply "unbalanceable" ever since terrain started rebuffing most EM damage, allowing the Blaster to more safely and repeatedly be used for ambush and hit-and-run tactics against whole groups of enemies with almost no chance of coming under direct fire, even over longer periods, because surrounding terrain remained fully intact. This is a stark departure from the normal benefits and drawbacks of most AOE weapons :)

Funny enough, despite its popularity at one point it took years for someone to finally put its latest iteration to the test, truly playing to its strengths, and sure enough even after the last minor buff it got to convince someone to at least try, that run happens to be the highest-scoring run so far in Beta 16, topping the leaderboards at 399,170! (Actually one of the highest-scoring runs in Cogmind ever.) So yeah, it's been proven that simply modifying range, damage, or other numbers isn't really going to cut it. It's either not good enough and no one would ever use it, or easily tips over into territory that makes it just waaaaay too powerful in the right hands.

But I don't like outright removing things from the world (extremely rare in Cogmind), preferring to instead update/adapt them, and if the pure numbers can't be made to work, it was time to do a more drastic redesign, so the Gui. EMP Blaster has been reborn as something which is still very powerful (actually way more powerful than before xD), but is limited in use. It's also no longer a regular piece of 0b10 tech that can be randomly found or fabricated, only appearing in certain prefab locations (the same ones as before). This change pulls it out of the random item pool, which could be seen as a bonus since almost everyone ignored its presence anyway :P

Darcyisverycute, of Gui. EMP leaderboard fame, even made a cool piece of art considering the part to be its own "faction" alignment :P. Now that's dedication.





Cogmind has gotten a ton of performance improvements in various areas over recent releases, but one of them in particular, the alternative SDL DLL, has unfortunately caused incompatibilities in some older/different hardware that can't seem to be reconciled across the board, so as of Beta 16.1 we're reverting to the original maximum-compatibility version. On some systems, in particular if using a 4K display, if you would like to try the drop-in DLL replacement (which does work fine for most people) to eek out some extra performance gains, it's still available on the forums here. This boosts FPS on some setups, though also note that Cogmind FPS is capped at 60 by default anyway, unless you manually uncap it. (Of course added performance also means less CPU strain to hit that 60 FPS, too :P)

Reverting to the original DLL also restores Cogmind's support for Windows 7, which I wasn't aware was broken until it was recently brought to my attention.

XP, however, has been dropped from the list of supported Windows versions. It should theoretically work fine, but I'm not sure why I haven't been able to get it running there again, it has clearly been broken for a long while, support would likely have to be dropped in the future anyway, and it's been years since any players I knew of were using it, so it's not really worth getting into the nuts and bolts on that one.



So there we have it, a minor version that completes a more proper introduction of the Unchained before we move deeper into this expansion with ever-crazier tech and encounters.

The next release may be a bit surprising ;)

In case you missed it in the annual review, the Beta 15 stats were analyzed and results posted here.



There is no leaderboard reset for Beta 16.1--the runs are included in the same board as the previous version, though the runwise database list puts them on a separate page for convenience.

Many thanks for your support, and as I always say (because it's always true :P), still lots to come...

Cogmind's 12th annual review is available over on the dev blog, summarizing a year featuring two major releases that finished off one expansion while kick-starting another.

2025 added a significant new map, over 100 new items, and Cogmind's 10th unique ending concluding the UFD plot line. A new batch of achievements also caught us up with seven years of new content. And the first members of the Unchained have arrived! (lots more coming on that front) Read more about all that and check out player art and more in the full post.

Beta 16.1 is around the corner, focused on, yep, more content and improved Unchained systems to go along with them as they evolve towards better integration into the world :D

A new expansion begins! Our Beta 16 eponymous opponents are upon us... With them comes upgraded Scanalyzer functionality for all, and a batch of over 200 more achievements to catch us up with the last seven years of ever-expanding content.

Hard to believe I've been working on Cogmind full time for 12 years now, with still several major releases planned out, but given the trajectory of recent versions as we arrive at and continue to explore increasingly extreme possibilities, I'm really looking forward to what's coming :)

Today let's get started with the changelog, then dive into demos and some of the more interesting topics within...



[h3]Cogmind Beta 16 "The Unchained" (251021) changelog (excerpt):[/h3]
[h3]-----( HIGHLIGHTS )-----[/h3]

• NEW: 228 more achievements covering new content since 2018, spanning plot, style, challenges, and more
  
• NEW: 5 Unchained
  
• NEW: 21 new items
  
• NEW: 17 turrets and drones
  
• NEW: 3 new robot variants
  
• NEW: Use Scanalyzers to study common non-prototype 0b10 parts for an additional permanent modifier to using any such part

[h3]-----( CONTENT )-----[/h3]

• NEW: Separate Heavy ARC variant specific to assaults and other non-patrol uses
  
• NEW: 11 new sound effects (total = 1350)
  
• MOD: Luggers generally smarter about selecting goals and dealing with more complex scenarios
  
• MOD: Moved Cep. Phasing Heat Sink into the lab area
  
• MOD: Special prototype robot variants added in Beta 15 now explicit about RIF immunity
  
• MOD: Achievement "Wheee!" description now more specific
  
• MOD: Achievement "Armchair Analyst" more specifically limited to Terminal sources
  
• MOD: Splice Drones no longer indirectly award "Error 47" achievement
  
• MOD: Removed achievement "What Is This Thing?"
  
• MOD: Removed challenge mode win achievements

[h3]-----( QOL / UI )-----[/h3]

• NEW: Item search window results include any Unknown parts and unidentified prototypes
  
• NEW: If part data visualization in info mode, item search also shows info summary instead of last known integrity
  
• NEW: Prefix item search window text string with '-' to exclude it from results
  
• NEW: Added .mat(ter)-specific type search filter to item search window
  
• NEW: Added .unc(ollected) filter to item search window to limit to items not yet in gallery
  
• NEW: Contextual tutorial message on first time affected by Drag when moving
  
• NEW: Option to intermittently show full text of map comments even outside comment mode (advanced.cfg: mapCommentsPersistent)
  
• NEW: Option to persistently highlight all known Heavy sensor ranges (advanced.cfg: alwaysShowHeavySensorRanges)
  
• MOD: Comments created via autocommentHeavies advanced.cfg option no longer automatically cleared upon security rotation
  
• MOD: System corruption visual effects no longer continue while in game menus

[h3]-----( MECHANICS / ITEMS )-----[/h3]

• NEW: Using RIF Installers restores any lost Relay Coupler IDs
  
• MOD: Search patrol dispatches may become applicable more quickly than before
  
• MOD: "Search Patrol Dispatched" influence decrease reduced from 150 to 100
  
• MOD: Allies will not swap with Botcubes during build sequence
  
• MOD: Myomer Exoskeleton speed improved from 100 to 90
  
• MOD: Dimensional Slip Node armor reduced to 5
  
• MOD: Removed bothacking penetration bonus from offensive hackware (low-impact remnant of older placeholder system)
  
• MOD: Access(Main) branch hacking results inside Garrison no longer report specific exit destination
  
• MOD: Fabnet override duration increased from 10 to 20

[h3]-----( SCORESHEET / DATA )-----[/h3]

• NEW: Scoresheet records Scrap Suit usage data
  
• NEW: History log records successful CPS Tube targets
  
• MOD: Scoresheet "Initial Warlord ECA Mod" records highest value for overall stat rather than total
  
• MOD: Scoresheet instead records intercept dispatches on a one-to-one basis with announcements

[h3]-----( BUGS )-----[/h3]

• FIX: Security rotations almost never occurred more than once per map [R-26 Lightspeed]
  
• FIX: Arc weapons always hit within their potential arc, even on a miss [Runia, aoemica]
  
• FIX: Civil war avoidance guarantee following quickest exit route could fail if top-right Scraptown stairs not yet discovered [aoemica, calico]
  
• FIX: 0b10 autonomous weapons were unaffected by active ID Mask [Infomantis]

Extended Beta 16 changelog including additional categorized minor details for advanced players...

>>>: CONTENT

• NEW: 1 new type of build class modifier based on new mechanic
  
• MOD: Deep Caves detects a wider variety of intruders
  
• MOD: Multinova Projection Cannon can no longer be faulty
  
• MOD: Immobilizer description specifically indicates target must have innate disruption immunity to be immune to the effect
  
• MOD: Updated C-30 ARC analysis text

>>>: QOL / UI

• NEW: Option to bypass warnings for removal of fragile/fused parts (advanced.cfg: ignoreDestroyOnRemovalConfirmation)
  
• MOD: Selecting an item to path to via search window ignores advanced.cfg warnOnMoveOutsideMapView setting
  
• MOD: Context help for originally melee-specific damage types updated to remove melee-only references
  
• MOD: Several log message colors for non-controllable allies switched to use same as controllable allies
  
• MOD: Some original achievement icon border types and default order updated
  
• MOD: [RPGLIKE mode] UFD Drillbomb size reduced to 3

>>>: SCORESHEET / DATA

• NEW: Scoresheet records "Prop Armor Coverage (%)"
  
• NEW: Scoresheet records "ECM-based Alert Blocks"
  
• NEW: Scoresheet records total thermoelectric energy gain
  
• NEW: Scoresheet records part restoration tallies

>>>: MISC

• NEW: All patron supporter names registered since Beta 15 added to in-game list (see Credits menu)
  
• NEW: All patron item-attribution names registered since Beta 15 added to the item collection gallery

For the complete changelog including all bug fixes, see the latest iteration packaged with the game or online here.

Saves from earlier versions are incompatible with Beta 16, but even if you're on Steam and Cogmind automatically updates, Beta 15 is still available via its own legacy branch and you can roll back to finish a run in progress first if you like. Cogmind will remind you which branch to use if it finds an old save, and your old save won't be deleted or affected by the update.



First introduced back in 2020 as part of the ARG event that teased a wide variety of optional future content, the "Unchained" have gradually made their way into Cogmind lore, most extensively as part of the latest two UFD-related releases.

If you've been to Scraptown a few times, by now you may have collected references to some of their names and capabilities.

Rightly feared by Derelicts everywhere, these former wild Derelicts now work for MAIN.C in a semi-autonomous capacity, featuring unique AI and gear seen nowhere else. Each is quite different and presents its own challenges, with the power to significantly shake up a run depending on the circumstances.

Unlike other mechanics designed to keep Cogmind moving along over time, Unchained are capable of tracking and pursuing threats to the Complex (e.g. a dangerous Cogmind) across multiple maps. Eventually they'll give up the chase, or you can opt to confront the danger.

Just like other such pressure mechanics, however, they are telegraphed in advance via announcements, so you'll know they're coming and can take evasive or preparatory action as necessary before they actually arrive.



The average player or basic winning run will not really see these guys much, if at all, whereas top runs by experienced players are much more likely to encounter at least one, if not more. Incurring the wrath of Unchained is even rarer (though not entirely impossible) if not playing on the harder difficulty setting around which Cogmind is balanced: Rogue.

But how to attract their attention to begin with...

Aside from sterilizing a large map, no individual actions are capable of triggering them, as they are more intended as a response to long-term behavior, in general repeated cumulative actions that Complex 0b10 finds very offensive to its normal operation. This is also why quicker shorter runs/wins are not as likely to see them, either.

For more background on Unchained design, you can check out this article from last month on Patreon.

Importantly I must say that the Unchained are a work in progress! There are many more types to come and while the goal was to have half or more of the total completed by now, before introducing their base of operations in Beta 17, I didn't want to keep everyone waiting too long between major releases, and a big chunk of time was instead already allocated to the achievements expansion (which itself was planned for later, but I decided to move that up).

Aside from greater variety, we'll have a possible tiering system and weighted dispatches, finer control of where each can and cannot appear or chase, and more general behavior tweaks... altogether things that will be better implemented once we do have a wider array of options available.

There are currently five different Unchained to meet.

Huge thanks to the patrons playing prerelease versions, especially the Unchained hunters out there forcing encounters to face these threats head on, but also just everyone in general providing very useful data with regard to when, where, and why Unchained were appearing, chasing, and to what extent this impacted runs, allowing for ongoing tweaks.

Not going to spoil anything else about these guys, just expect the unexpected. Maybe the Exiles can help.

Things sure are looking a little different around these parts...





Although naturally not everyone will be able to partake in (suffer at the hands of?) the arrival of the Unchained, everyone will be able to take advantage of our newly-upgraded Scanalyzers!

Scanalyzers have always had useful core functionality in terms of identifying parts and acquiring schematics for them, functions that some players make extensive use of, but for years I've wanted to expand them to include an even greater number of use cases across almost any build or strategy type.

Well for Beta 16 patrons voted to include this feature, and it's here! Also it's great :D (Personally as a player given my own strategies I tend to ignore Scanalyzers most of the time, but will definitely take advantage of them from now on given this new feature...)

In short, with a common (non-prototype) 0b10 part in your possession you can retrieve "studies" for that technology, giving you a better understanding of its capabilities and therefore improve a stat for all parts of that type.

The steps to this process, with an example:

• You have one or more Carbon-fiber Legs attached or in inventory.
  
• Visit a Scanalyzer and use the new direct Retrieve Study option which gives a list of all parts in your possession for which you can download study data.
  
• Select Carbon-fiber Leg from the list and, if successful, the effective move time of all Carbon-fiber Legs you ever use is reduced from 120 to 105!

Many builds are composed of salvage to some degree, and most salvage is common parts, so this is a consistent way to put together even more effective builds from "junk."

Parts for which you have an applicable study append a '+' after their name, as you cna see in this example below that downloads multiple studies:



To keep things simple, the type of stat modification acquired for a given part is consistent across entire categories of parts, as follows:

• Lgt/Mic/Mni power sources: +1 supply
  
• Other power sources: +2 supply
  
• Treads: Penalty/2
  
• Legs: -15 time/move
  
• Wheels: -10 time/move
  
• Hover/Flight: +1 support/slot
  
• Weapons: +10% accuracy

There are no studies for Utilities, but you can do some really nice things with the rest of these options, especially given how aside from repeat salvage from particular robots, you can also find larger caches of useful regular parts. Some common parts may also see use through long stretches of certain run types, increasing the value of acquiring a study on them early.

Just like the Insert() feature, Study() allows you to identify unknown parts (hence their same base chance, actually, which is high so this is pretty easy for non-hackers to pull off).



Like schematics, part studies also prevent you from losing the respective part IDs to corruption.

And as with schematics and analyses, we're going to need a way to access a list of what you know, so that's been added to the Status window where you'd expect (the button in this case being named just "List" so we can use 'L' for keyboard access as 'S' is unavailable).



Alongside schematic, fabrication and repair lists, run scoresheets now also include a complete list of where and what parts Cogmind studied, which will be very interesting to look at in the future data.





Well it's been a hot minute since we got new achievements in Cogmind :P

The existing list has served us well over the years, but naturally a huge amount of content has been added since the first batch went out in 2018, but no new achievements to match! I kept waiting to introduce more since I imagined that would be better left as a "near 1.0" sort of thing, but seeing as there is still no specific timeline for 1.0 and it's been this long already, I decided we really need to catch up with the content on this front sooner rather than later. Another part of what originally kept reinforcing the decision to wait was that expanding our achievements would be quite an undertaking, not just for the sheer amount of content to take into account, but also because I would need to rewrite some of the underlying architecture to increase the system's flexibility. On that note, good news is it's now very easy to add new achievements, so they'll be able to better keep up with any new content or mechanics needs going forward.

Beta 16 includes 228 new achievements spanning the full range of categories I established back when developing the first set. They are distributed as follows (graph was put together several months back, before a few more achievements were added for yet newer content, but it's close :P):



There's more background info on development of the new set available in this article.

As part of this process, I also did a full review of old achievements, though little was changed among those, mainly just a few icon adjustments in light of newer developments.

The biggest change was the removal of all "challenge mode" win achievements. This is not the Challenge category achievements, of which we're seeing plenty more, but instead refers to the old challenge modes which most people don't know about--they're too different from the regular game, not easily accessible, and, most importantly, no longer updated/maintained. The modes themselves can still be accessed as indicated in the manual, there's just no achievements associated with them. At the time many years ago they might have become a more integral part of the game, but I decided not to go down that route, and it's not feasible to properly maintain them or require that players activate and deal with those just for achievement hunting.

But this achievement update is essentially just more more more...



For those of you who've been playing for a while, you will likely earn quite a few new achievements very quickly, since you'll be able to breeze through a run and interact with an even wider array of mechanics compared to newer players. You may also earn some achievements in a sometimes unexpected order, but this is because they're designed with a fresh player experience in mind, not the experience of someone who's been playing for dozens/hundreds of hours already. New achievements from the Style, Challenge, and Win categories will of course come at a more reasonable pace :)

A reminder that hidden achievements are such because they'll be earned through normal play across all story and build types / content interaction, so you don't really need to look them up unless you are explicitly trying to earn all achievements in as short a time as possible (the record for 100%-ing Cogmind achievements through planned runs is under a month).

And another reminder regarding Steam "global achievement" rates: They have always been pretty off for Cogmind given that achievements were introduced years after release, and the weirdness will only continue with this new batch, in fact getting far worse and confusing, so one shouldn't pay attention to those numbers xD

Aaand one more important notice here: If you are playing Beta 16 via Steam on day 1, note that it will take some hours after release before all new achievements are available on the platform itself, but don't worry about missing any since if you play in the meantime and do earn achievements, as usual Cogmind records them in its own more detailed interactive interface/database anyway, and will sync up with Steam once those do become available very soon (after you start up the game again on any later date). Accessed via the game menu (Esc) -> Records (7) -> Achievements (a).





Mmmm, tasty QoL...

I've finally accumulated enough little things I wanted to do to further improve the already-powerful item search feature to package it all up for release in Beta 16. Like in the past item searching always used the integrity view for listed items, but now if you're in info mode (Q), it can show that instead! This might allow you to better see the effects of rating-based filters, if you use those, or just generally more quickly identify the basic stats for a part you may have forgotten the details of.



Text searching also allows for exclusion of a string by inserting a '-' before it, for example "-corr" to exclude corrupted parts:



Searches can also now properly find prototype or otherwise unknown parts, if that's what you're looking for (or want to exclude).



We also have some new advanced options regarding more persistent data visualizations on the map. Normally the map view avoids using too many permanent extra indicators, since they can be distracting, but in the past I'd identified some features that I thought might be interesting or useful to have as permanent options for some folks.

The first is map comments. Of course there are customizable map comment indicators that mark each location, but to see the contents you have to enter comment mode. Well how about always (well intermittently based on your settings) showing the full text alongside the marker, which may not be too distracting if you're the sort of player to leave only occasional short comments... Here's that option in action (advanced.cfg: mapCommentsPersistent), with both an automated and manual comment:



There's also an option to always shown the detection warning radius for known Heavies nearby, the same info you can see when putting your cursor over them (advanced.cfg: alwaysShowHeavySensorRanges):



(I'm putting myself in the wall there just so we can watch two Heavies rotate past :P)

Among the other long-term notes I have finally converted into reality... we have a new variant of the Carrier class. Previously ARCs have always belonged to one of those rarer single-variant classes, but come Beta 16 you'll (maybe) be seeing a new type of ARC: C-45 Heavy ARC.

For quite a while now I've been sitting on the possibility of adding a new ARC, saving the idea for a special future case that simply hadn't materialized yet, but was more recently inspired to put it in action to address an occasional annoyance: ARC confusion.

More than once we've seen folks who aren't aware there's a difference between an assault and a patrol roaming around in an ARC, plus of course even if you're an experienced player there are situations where you may not be sure which is which unless you watch for a bit. Viewed in QoL terms, it would be really nice if these uses were more explicitly differentiated!

So from now on regular patrols use the old ARC, and any other instances (mostly assaults) use the new Heavy variant (which is red).

Naturally now that we've differentiated the two we also have further leeway to consider other changes beyond the purely cosmetic! Assaults may sometimes get even closer to visible targets before deploying (if not shot at beforehand), which could be interesting. They'll also be better protected, with core shielding and a switch to Armored Huge Wheels, making them a little slower but also more durable. Also good news for Garrison divers who want to salvage some of those sweet wheels ;)

See this Heavy ARC test with closer deployment:



And a comparison between a patrolling ARC and... ARCs of a different persuasion...



In addition to reflecting their different purpose, adding this variant will be a nice reinforcement of the idea that their respective contents are different, too!



Lotta great work coming out of the community these days! Sadly for health reasons I have not been able to stream--sucks, though in the meantime as usual we do have others streaming some great runs mostly on Discord, or sharing snapshots of sweet builds or lamentable situations, or there getting advice on their runs from other helpful folks.

And streaming or no, we can all appreciate some sweet fan art :D

u/Southern_Shine200's 3D tank render composed of ASCII art for the actual parts one might use for such a build (source and more shots here):



A sighting of the Great Nut?! This is what McSaucyNugget would have you believe...



Watercolor G-47 Trooper, also by McSaucyNugget:



Zyalin's been cooking up something else new we'll maybe get to see in the future, but this one's just a quick sketch of my TRAPPER-ASSASSIN build I was streaming some months ago.



(I guess I did also stream some Beta 16 early on to share the new Scanalyzer study feature--that, too, turned into a gladiator/assassin build :P)

I should make some new wallpapers or something since I haven't done that in *checks calendar* a decade (xD), but it seems like u/Southern_Shine200 has you covered there, too!



CaptainWinky continues to expand his crazy amount of "expanded lore," many with design, art, and visual aids.



Merchants, you don't say...

One very impressive piece of work to come out in recent months is not of the visual variety. If you're into excellent writing, I'd like to point you in the direction of fernman's fanfic "All's Quiet on the Warlord Front," a short story describing a particular theoretical scenario from a regular Derelict's point of view. Short excerpt:

It unfolds. It’s beautiful and it’s disgusting. The disk morphs into something massive and ethereally angular – no bot should be that large and not grounded. Armour plates curve out and flex around, a cloth cloak crossed with the wings of a metal beetle, exposing an esoteric mass of sensors and processors and tertiary subsystem computers that rapidly mark it as a far greater threat than even Warlord, who is himself broadcasting the order base-wide – not that it’s likely anyone is left to hear it – to ‘Come and help me deal with whatever the hell just flew into my throne room,’ and he’s squeezing off a volley that strikes mere armour.

Within the full 2k words is an inspiring vision of what earning the "Traitor" challenge achievement must feel like from the other side, assuming you're prepared to pull it off ;)

[hr][/hr]

That's the rundown. Get out there, earn some achievements, study some parts for more efficient builds, maybe find some Unchained (or more properly speaking, get found by some Unchained), and... expect a 16.1!

Been a while since I did a minor version release that wasn't just a patch, and have never actually announced one in advance, but this time is different due to the state of Beta 16 and how it differs from what I'm aiming for before we head for Beta 17: We need more Unchained!

Again, catching up on achievements ended up getting priority and we're at a good enough spot for public Beta 16 release now already, so better than pushing it back just to accommodate more Unchained work. Their overall balance will improve as more are added though, plus there are a lot of neat but complex internal mechanics on the way to support them, so better to not try rushing any of that.

Also of course there will likely be some tiny updates here in the near term--those don't get announced separately but patch content is always added to the changelogs as usual, and the in-game version/News reminder is another way to know about those if you have it active in the options.

The leaderboards will soon be archived and reset for our new version followed by stat analysis from our tens of thousands of runs submitted from Beta 15.

The epic conclusion to the UFD expansion is here, bringing with it a major new map, 100 new items, and Cogmind's 10th unique ending!

Within you'll also find a huge range of other updates, notably including Extermination and Assault squads without free tracking to Cogmind?!

As usual I'll be avoiding content spoilers (and there are a heck of a lot of surprises to spoil), but following the changelog below will be describing and demonstrating some of other the new features, while also providing some useful background info before you get started.



[h3]Cogmind Beta 15 "0bPrime" (250505) changelog (excerpt):[/h3]
[h3]-----( HIGHLIGHTS )-----[/h3]

• NEW: Branch map "[redacted]"
  
• NEW: 100 new items
  
• NEW: 1 new ending (total = 10)
  
• NEW: Additional optional boss and alternative extended challenge
  
• MOD: Extermination/assault squads no longer automatically track directly to Cogmind's position
  
• MOD: Optimized rendering gives significant FPS boost to 4K and other high resolutions [Luigi]
  

[h3]-----( CONTENT )-----[/h3]

• NEW: 8 new encounters
  
• NEW: 12 new robot variants
  
• NEW: 2 new robot classes
  
• NEW: 3 new robot tiles
  
• NEW: 2 new major events
  
• NEW: 1 more major NPC
  
• NEW: 1 new unauthorized hack
  
• NEW: 40 new lore entries
  
• NEW: 81 new sound effects (total = 1339)
  
• MOD: Several nearly-"guaranteed" encounters in certain maps now actually fully guaranteed (includes A7, 4L-MR0, -8/MAT GAR and more)
  
• MOD: Main Warlord cache moved to its own room
  
• MOD: Approaching S7 with FarCom causes entrance lockdown
  

[h3]-----( QOL / UI )-----[/h3]

• NEW: Reverse info comparison between two items via new REVERSE button (or 'r' key)
  
• NEW: Info page for individual allies shows damage and kill tallies
  
• NEW: HUD borders animated in purple while under effect of Stasis Trap or Containment Facilitator
  
• MOD: Special manual Terminal hacks, including persistent ones not listed in menus, now accepted without "\\" prefix (IAMDERELICT!)
  

[h3]-----( MECHANICS / ITEMS )-----[/h3]

• NEW: Successful Fedlink also locates all Recycling Units on current map
  
• NEW: PSU Rigger capable of toggling manual timer for rigged power source detonation, akin to Sapper Charges
  
• NEW: Encrypted Comm Array detects and labels nearby friendly ambush traps, even from inventory
  
• NEW: Repair Station with repair in progress may drop the part upon being disabled
  
• MOD: Multiple exterminations can no longer be dispatched across a very short period
  
• MOD: Natural influence decay applied more gradually over time, rather than in large chunks at greater intervals
  
• MOD: Removed Sensor Arrays and Signal Interpreters from Watchers (available from new TF Nodes)
  
• MOD: Dropped heat of most kinetic cannons by 15%
  
• MOD: Increased average kinetic cannon coverage by 10%, integrity by 20%
  
• MOD: Transmission Jammers have a small chance to fail to block transmissions
  
• MOD: Active Sensor Suite coverage halved, integrity increased
  
• MOD: Hybrid power sources have significantly decreased coverage
  
• MOD: Retrieved drones with damaged parts or core are repaired using the bay's integrity as a resource
  
• MOD: Main maps also have spawn protection against Behemoths being stationed immediately nearby
  
• MOD: Siege mode accuracy bonus reduced to +15%/25% for Standard/High siege
  
• MOD: Fully transitioning into/out of siege mode requires 7 turns instead of 5
  
• MOD: "Siege" stat listed in part info replaced with more generic "Special" for treads/legs to accommodate new alternative mechanics
  
• MOD: Restarting a disrupted ally via bumping always succeeds
  
• MOD: Allied Mechanics no longer arm Cogmind if any weapon slot already contains a functional non-backup part
  
• MOD: Combat Programmers cannot be hacked, only parsed
  
• MOD: Relay Coupler [Swarmer] base value reduced from 28 to normal (20)
  
• MOD: Index(Terminals) and equivalents exclude limited-access door control Terminals
  
• MOD: Jammed Operators can still lock DSFs directly upon reaching their Terminal to call reinforcements
  
• MOD: In Rogue mode, destroying a Garrison Access point attracts two assault squads instead of one
  
• MOD: Cogmind parts no longer inherently immune to disruption (constructs always immune, and part shielding/Dynamic Insulation systems prevent it)
  

[h3]-----( SCORESHEET / DATA )-----[/h3]

• NEW: Scoresheet includes more specific breakdown of alert sources
  
• NEW: Scoresheet Intel section includes infowar usage breakdown
  
• NEW: Scoresheet records number of average and unused spare parts
  
• NEW: Scoresheet lists Repaired parts in centralized format as well, as with Fabricated objects
  

[h3]-----( BUGS )-----[/h3]

• FIX: Under certain circumstances, machine intel markers may autodeactivate on acquiring new intel [R-26 Lightspeed]
  
• FIX: Some known branch entrances may appear as stairs instead of doors under certain circumstances [R-26 Lightspeed, Mr Goldstein, RNGesus]
  
• FIX: Mak. Microdissipator Network causing final ablative damage to multislot construct destroyed it outright instead of downsizing [Darby, Cracklepappy]
  
• FIX: Active Sensor Suite description did not mention its inability to overcome Scan Cloak 5 [aoemica]
  
• FIX: Inventory(Components) and Inventory(Prototypes) did not include all relevant stockpiles [aoemica]
  
• FIX: Non-overweight flight-capable bots had become blocked from using their ability to jump bots if too close to Cogmind, or on sensors [Plexion]
  
• FIX: Tech Extrapolator provided schematic for Structural Scanner instead of DSS [Hermelin]
  
• FIX: Influence for off-turn spotting still applied even if Cogmind visible on AI's next turn, especially relevant when fighting Sentries [DDarkray]
  
• FIX: Adventurer mode showed cargo convoy path automatically (normally only given in Explorer mode) [8fpsbossfight]
  
• FIX: Properly stop the potential infinite typing sound at Terminals under conditions such as retrieving a manifest longer than the output display area
  
• FIX: Squads will no longer split up as much due to being blocked in narrow corridors under certain circumstances (behavior introduced in Beta 14)
  
• FIX: Addressed several situations where it might be possible to display the left half of an inventory item tile twice instead of the entire tile
  
• FIX: Main Access Shell may not always open automatically even if door properly hacked
  
• FIX: Mechanics could not repair allies during W assault
  
• FIX: Red line could appear over top-left of map area after map transitions in modal UI layout
  

Extended Beta 15 changelog including additional categorized minor details for advanced players...

>>>: CONTENT

• NEW: Additional Garrison layouts
  
• NEW: Looping Garrisons without RIF increases chance of exits from other Garrisons at same depth leading to a different area
  
• NEW: Entering Garrisons increases Programmer support within other Garrisons at same depth
  
• NEW: Using a certain route enables Scrap Engine theft without angering UFD
  
• NEW: Culmination of the large-scale -2/Research event gives access to Cave Seal Controls
  
• NEW: [Player 2 mode] Player 2 included in ending animation
  
• MOD: Updated lore to reflect new extermination/assault squad behavior
  
• MOD: Slightly increased possible Recycling Unit count in Factory/Research
  
• MOD: Security Level 3 type Recycling Units less common
  
• MOD: Data Miner responds more naturally to more types of potential hostilities
  
• MOD: Exiles also discover theft in Storage if reached before Factory
  
• MOD: Increased frequency of multiple rare Zion dialogues
  
• MOD: Adjusted a few Scraptown areas to accommodate new content
  
• MOD: Scraptown response to hostility updated to account for new content
  
• MOD: UI border color lost if disowned by UFD
  
• MOD: Increased armor of Botcube Storage access door
  
• MOD: Botcubes have their own robot class
  
• MOD: Decramped some prefab areas containing salvageable robots or scrap to streamline salvaging process
  
• MOD: Allies from Ambush Traps switched from generic purple to W faction
  
• MOD: "D-Prototypes" static terminal target renamed to Protocatalog for more generic use
  
• MOD: Siege-capable treads contribute towards TANK designation for build classification
  

>>>: QOL / UI

• NEW: HUD displays Encrypted Comm Array modifier while appropriate
  
• NEW: HUD gains "UFD Traitor" label to reflect that faction status where appropriate
  
• NEW: On-map item label category filters also reset when using keyboard mass labeling command or corresponding Scan window mouse button
  
• NEW: Mouse wheel also capable of cycling on-map item categories while items mass labeled
  
• NEW: In keyboard mode, 'r' may be held as a modifier to jump the examine/targeting cursor in combination with vi-keys/arrows/numpad, as with Shift-Numpad
  
• NEW: Interactive machine data obtained indirectly via terrain scanning, Derelicts logs, etc. added to intel
  
• NEW: Some types of intel markers darken after a while has passed since first learned, especially for those representing former positions of mobile objects
  
• NEW: Additional details provided in effect description of a certain unique Exoskeleton
  
• NEW: Animation and audio feedback in parts list for forced removal due to causes such as blast/sever/sunder crits and Segregators, Tearclaws, etc
  
• NEW: Unique audio feedback for skim results
  
• NEW: Evolution interface supports arrow/numpad/hjkl key control
  
• NEW: F2 for toggling keyboard mode also works in machine hacking window
  
• NEW: Context tutorial message explaining difference between gray and green '?' for dialogue markers (previously only in manual)
  
• NEW: Option to display total move time required to reach destination while highlighting path via Ctrl-Alt (advanced.cfg: dynamicPathDistanceTime)
  
• NEW: Options to automatically mark discovered stationary Heavies/Behemoths/Sentries via map comments (advanced.cfg: autocomment options)
  
• NEW: Option to also show map-specific turn count in HUD (advanced.cfg: hudMapTurnCount)
  
• NEW: Option to override the longer temporary movement block duration when warned of extremely slow movement (advanced.cfg: extremeSlowMoveSpeedBlockTime)
  
• NEW: Option to override timeout duration while drag-dropping an item via mouse (advanced.cfg: dragDropTimeout)
  
• NEW: Option enabling custom input methods to rebind the continuous "running" movement modifier (advanced.cfg: runCommandModKey)
  
• NEW: Option to stream entire combat log to an external file as messages are generated (advanced.cfg: combatLogStreaming)
  
• MOD: Warnings and intermap transfer when followed by multitile allies at exits consider all ally-occupied positions rather than top-left corner
  
• MOD: Prototype non-controllable allies appear light purple instead of retaining crimson override color
  
• MOD: Significantly decreased audio range of Micro-nuke detonation
  
• MOD: Using a Datajack to quick boot an ally or accelerate assimilation does not restore as default manual target for next fire action
  
• MOD: Flashing characters for on-map siege mode activation now red instead of yellow
  
• MOD: Scrap Shield delivery ignores those in temporary slots, regardless of integrity, so long as have another in inventory
  
• MOD: Volley window weapon reference letters listed in alphabetical order
  
• MOD: Added second exception for coupler autoreplacement when one is more damaged but has higher value, consistently preferring the latter
  
• MOD: More position-specific dialogue messages accompanied by on-map indicators
  
• MOD: Most scene messages from log also reflected at bottom of map view
  
• MOD: Direct mouse access to map robot info blocked while any status screen list open (was only sometimes possible in non-modal layout)
  
• MOD: condenseSlotTypeHeaders/alwaysCondenseSlotTypeHeaders renamed to "[...]PartCategoryHeaders," reset for everyone, and disabled by default
  
• MOD: Options menu Keyboard Mode value now stored in user/system.cfg rather than options.cfg, to prevent transfer across systems by Steam Cloud
  
• MOD: deferredAudioLoading setting moved from advanced.cfg to system.cfg, to prevent transfer across systems by Steam Cloud
  
• MOD: Map particle rendering order inverted, may impact some animations
  

>>>: MECHANICS / ITEMS

• NEW: Concussive RPG blasts also push items on ground
  
• NEW: Added full description to Compactor
  
• NEW: Junk Cannon description expanded to include warning about automated recycling at 0 ammo even while inactive
  
• NEW: Several teleportation technology effect descriptions include additional details
  
• NEW: Master Drone Bay description now implies possibility of failure to survive destruction of host
  
• NEW: Multitool gives explicit feedback if attempt use on non-Terminal interactive machine
  
• NEW: Resource container effect description explicit about inability to retrieve resources from inside while item corrupted
  
• NEW: Core reset effect also marks redacted exoskeleton position with hypermatrix surge
  
• NEW: Controllable Mechanics now list current remaining integrity repair "Supplies" among their inventory
  
• NEW: Watchers gain explicit Sensor Jamming trait to retain original jamming functionality
  
• MOD: Reduced predictability of extermination dispatches
  
• MOD: Removed relay_feed robot hack (no longer applicable)
  
• MOD: Increased damage of some Linear Accelerators
  
• MOD: Diametric Drive energy cost reduced from 1 to 0.5
  
• MOD: Diametric Drive, Cld. Cesium-ion Thruster integrity increased
  
• MOD: Heart of Steel coverage and integrity increased significantly, but destroyed on removal
  
• MOD: Matter Drive size/energy decreased, coverage increased, now fragile
  
• MOD: Alien consumables reduced to 0 coverage, given differentiated integrity values
  
• MOD: Renamed "Point Defense Array" and "Antimissile System" to types of Point Defense Systems
  
• MOD: "Recoil Nullifier" renamed "Adv. Recoil Stabilizer"
  
• MOD: All EM Disruption Fields renamed to corresponding EM Shields, highest rating increased to 9
  
• MOD: Energy Mantles merged into single new "Adv. Remote Force Field"
  
• MOD: Imp. Remote Force Field rating lowered from 8 to 7
  
• MOD: Exp. Force Field removed from general item spawning pool
  
• MOD: Major NPC's Beam Splitter replaced with Thermal Barrier, difference added as innate resistance
  
• MOD: Scatter Rocket Array radius increased to 4
  
• MOD: Rocket Array matter cost increased to 30
  
• MOD: Unique Pitchfork and Trident weapons have attack delay
  
• MOD: Siege Articulator effect increased from 2 to 3
  
• MOD: Updated descriptions of all Concussive RPGs to better reflect their mechanics
  
• MOD: Thermal Lance explicitly indicates unique heat transfer property in description
  
• MOD: Mechanic combat repair block extended from 5 to 12 turns
  
• MOD: Mechanics no longer arm Strikers using a melee weapon
  
• MOD: Botcubes capable of using Expert System
  
• MOD: Hacking Drone innate heat dissipation increased by 2
  
• MOD: Microwarp Drive size increased to three slots
  
• MOD: Vmp. Broadsword integrity and mass increased
  
• MOD: Field Manipulator cost to Stasis Trap reduced from 5% to 3%
  
• MOD: Cannot store resources in corrupted resource containers
  
• MOD: Engineers building machines displace items in designated area, or destroy them if no available space
  
• MOD: Armed mutual allies capable of swapping with one another in more circumstances
  
• MOD: Temporary part disabled status removed when traveling between maps
  

>>>: SCORESHEET / DATA

• NEW: No more than 60 of a single robot class contribute to score in a single map, though total kill data still recorded in scoresheet records
  
• NEW: Expanded scoresheet "Hostile Shots Fired" records with more possible stats
  
• NEW: Scoresheet records Encrypted Comm Array modifier values for entire run until behavior is no longer compatible with faction
  
• NEW: Scoresheet includes relevant Membrane/ITN/NEM data in status summary
  
• NEW: Scoresheet includes robot disruption stats
  
• NEW: Scoresheet movement data includes travel through potential cave-in locations
  
• NEW: A-bots destroyed specifically via DC code also recorded among NPC kills in scoresheet, as is GM if explosion triggered via hack
  
• NEW: Gallery export data includes Fragile trait
  
• MOD: Attacks on controllable or temporary allies don't count as Friendly Fire for scoring purposes
  
• MOD: Parts Attached section of scoresheet only counts each unique part once even if reattached
  

>>>: MISC

• NEW: All patron and Alpha supporter names registered since Beta 14 added to in-game list (see Credits menu and item collection gallery)
  

For the complete changelog including all bug fixes, see the latest iteration packaged with the game or online here.

Saves from earlier versions are incompatible with Beta 15, but even if you're on Steam and Cogmind automatically updates, Beta 14 is still available via its own legacy branch and you can roll back to finish a run in progress first if you like. Cogmind will remind you which branch to use if it finds an old save, and your old save won't be deleted or affected by the update.



The UFD sees you making fun of them. What could this hodgepodge group of robots hailing from an obsolete complex ever hope to accomplish? It's time for the UFD to take it to the next level.

For those who've forgotten or were not yet aware, Cogmind's previous release (Beta 14) was only the first half of the so-called "UFD arc." We needed a content cutoff somewhere, and that cutoff happened to require leaving out even some of the Scraptown experience itself. Although the UFD of Beta 14 brought much in the way of new tech and ideas (lore!), and could come in handy as allies or a source of resources supporting new build styles, if you weren't impressed before you may be more interested in their full offering...

To see what's new, join up and visit the previously empty council room to meet a famous fellow you may have already heard of. Note there were originally a couple Terminals in that room which you likely read if you've been there before, but it's probably important to remind yourself what's on them (also a third one has been added). "Fedlink" matters now, in ways you'll discover as you go (it wasn't strongly integrated into the game yet due to the aforementioned cutoff). This new plot line will eventually lead you all the way to a new ending, one quite different from any of the others.

You may also encounter some new more direct routes to reach Scraptown in the first place.

Good luck :)



Not to be outdone by lowly scrap-loving Derelicts, MAIN.C has been working on something new as well, very new. So new I can't tell you almost anything about it, or even where it is, but the UFD will help you.

Okay I will say 1) it's a new map that is 2) somewhere higher up in Complex 0b10. Although this may currently put it out of reach for some of you (both getting there and using it for any of its purposes is on the challenging side), you'll at least find that Scraptown itself (available earlier on) and plenty of other aspects of Beta 15 are quite accessible and ready to improve various aspects of your runs.



The biggest news you may have caught on to when first mentioned in the introduction is that Exterminations and Assaults will no longer come straight to Cogmind when dispatched! Yep it's a pretty big change with a number of implications, but gone are the days of new players believing it possible to just hide in a tiny room until they pass by or go away, only to discover it's always one or more Programmers hot on your tail for as long as it takes to reach your precise location. Yeah we had friendly contextual derelicts to help explain that mechanic (in addition to the lore behind it which could be read for further details), but it was clearly not great from a design standpoint, more of a necessity as one of the few "food clocks" to help add pressure to a run, and one that needed to be pretty direct to have a more meaningful effect. Well this many years later we're now in a world with even richer maps--more obstacles, more challenges, more variety than the one into which Exterminations were born (and by extension Assault dispatch behavior), so it's time to give them more realistic and interesting behavior to go with their roles.

From now on, rather than targeting you specifically, Exterminations and Assaults instead head to your general area to begin searching. If you're not there by the time they arrive, then it's possible to give them the slip (same goes for Assaults!), although over time they do expand their search radius and will continue looking for you, albeit via an increasingly inaccurate and slow process. Naturally having sensors and access to more nearby routes will make it easier to avoid them for as long as you need to.

Of course you may still run into them later, which might not be under ideal circumstances, but at least it's not an inevitability and you have even more options than before.

Extermination dispatch timing is also now much less predictable, but also gone are the days of multiple dispatches in quick succession.

If Programmers do find you, note that the disruption property of their weapons can now temporarily affect your parts--Cogmind was always inherently immune to that effect, but if you want that immunity now you'll need to use either part shielding (for specific part categories) or a Dynamic Insulation system for blanket protection.





The above is just one area in which the general "pressure" across normal floors is evolving. Aside from a bug fix related to spotting that should likely result in somewhat lower alert buildup overall, more directly you'll also see (if you have a way to see it :P) that alert decay is now applied gradually instead of in large chunks at greater intervals, resulting in a natural and smooth process but with the same ultimate effect as before.



For the detail-oriented player, scoresheets now also include a complete breakdown of all sources of alert/influence increase and decrease across a run. See the boxed section in this sample excerpt below:



[h3]Kinetic Cannons[/h3]

Buffs! Everyone loves buffs, and if you're a KI cannon buff you'll really love this one. They've gotten a heat reduction across the board, as well as a coverage boost and even bigger integrity boost, meaning they're outright more efficient to run than before, and will last longer while simultaneously offering a bit of extra cover for your other parts. Remember to still carry surplus matter storage and/or consider employing a Tractor Beam so you can immediately suck up all the bits you blast off your targets.

[h3]Yes, Siege Mode is Still Amazing[/h3]

Okay this one's a nerf, but an inevitable one just long in coming, and relatively minor in the bigger picture of siege superiority. In fact it might even save you some time :P

Who hasn't started sieging up to blast some incoming bots then finished them off so fast you barely even started getting any benefits from the mode only to have to unsiege before you can move again anyway? Well sieging now takes 7 turns to complete rather than 5, so not necessarily an immediate reaction for nearly all encounters. Remember that the entire time you're entering/exiting siege mode you're also at a disadvantage (due to immobility combined with a targeting bonus for your enemies), so some of those quick last-minute siege/unsiege situations often turn out to be pointless at best.

The siege mode targeting bonus is also somewhat reduced, but it's still quite good, with the reduction having a smaller proportional effect on Siege-type treads, leaving them with that extra edge--it's in the name :D

Sieging is likely to be a little more deliberate going forward, and is still just as great for all its same defensive benefits.

Note this change did not come in isolation, its timing was determined to coincide with the introduction of multiple new mechanics: more special propulsion modes! Be on the lookout for new types of legs on your travels, the result of patron voting as part of Beta 15 development. Leg-based assault, skirmisher, and melee builds all have something to look forward to.



[h3]Watchers Not Sensers[/h3]

Watchers have been stripped down, doing the same old jobs as before but without the Sensor Array or Signal Interpreter. It was always kinda weird they never used them for remote sensing despite the original lore explanation, and now that we have other bots that do properly use sensors (in fact more than one now as of Beta 15), it was time to make these guys a little more realistic.

But you do need a convenient source for these useful parts! And you'll have one, albeit not from those annoying flighty dodgy guys. You'll see the new source pretty quickly, and there's some lore to explain those more, but attacking Watchers would be mainly to shut them up, or if you want their optics which are still nice to have.

[h3]Infinity Drones[/h3]

Drones have always been fully repaired for free upon returning to a bay, though this was behavior from Cogmind's early days when there was just one type of drone, and just for exploration, whereas now there are drones with all kinds of functionality, including combat drones and some of them quite formidable in their own right.

Well giving them all free repairs is equivalent to infinite integrity if one is willing to baby them, so a change to that aspect was another long in coming, and just hadn't happened yet. Part of the delay is that my intent was to wait for a bigger drone update (more drones!) and do it together with that (since reconsidering some drone stats in this light would be a good idea), but Beta 15 introduces yet another combat drone, an incredibly powerful one, so I didn't want to wait on this any longer.



Drone repairs now drain the integrity of corresponding bays upon repair. The process is all automated and uses the best options available at the time, including inventory-based bays; the costs are also fairly lenient at the moment due to the lack of drone stat changes, so doesn't really have much impact on normal drone use, just getting that mechanic in there now.



It's a Cogmind release, of course there's tons of QoL!

While using the item name display feature, you can now also cycle through the categories with the mouse wheel, rather than just one of the keyboard options:



You can now reverse the comparison between two items' info--there's a nifty [REVERSE] button to click, or hit the 'r' key:



For some extra audiovisual reinforcement when a part is forcefully removed by some mechanic, there's new animation and SFX for that:



It's generally pretty obvious when it happens, and hard to forget, but now there's also a persistent HUD border animation to go along with being stuck in non-beam-type stasis effects:



When Terrain Scanners or other non-direct intel methods discover machine locations, they're added to your intel marker records as normal, rather than just being visible on the map:



For those of you who would like all known Heavy/Behemoth/Sentry guard positions to be autocommented on your map, there are separate settings for each of these in the user/advanced.cfg file (and the manual has more information about their behavior):



The new advanced dynamicPathDistanceTime option shows you the exact amount of time required to reach a given destination given your current speed while manually highlighting a path to a destination:



Here's a fun one--now you can see just how many kills and damage have been dealt out by your favorite Botcube, NPC ally, or random Hunter follower who just seems to be casually murdering all comers:



It's now possible to see the actual amount of integrity supplies remaining in your allied Mechanic to provide repairs--not that many people ever hit this limit (and no it's not some new restrictive limit so don't expect it to become a problem, it's always been there!), but a select few RIF-heads do indeed run into this (shown here with its context help copied from the manual):



Use any of the normal directional keys to control the evolution UI (arrows/vi/numpad), not just letters or mouse:



Among its new data entries the scoresheet includes multiple bigger new sections, including some pretty cool ones like a breakdown of all the infowar used across the run (17 types total! although this sample only shows 6 of them):



Like the Fabrication list we now also have a list of every repair performed and the item's original state:



And now we'll know just how many spare parts of each type people are carrying through their runs (extra replacement parts in inventory at a given time), and how many of those went completely unused/discarded later:



I'm sure these sections will provide some very interesting aggregate data to share later in the usual places!

Special status indicators from the HUD are also now reflected in the scoresheet's summary at the top--unique modifiers like Membrane/ITN/NEM...



A really important QoL update that I don't have an image for is actually a fix to a new bug introduced in Beta 14 while getting rid of the old issue of a combat AI sometimes hopping over another in an attempt to reach Cogmind (even around a corner or without flight capabilities). So that original issue was fixed, but in the process apparently introduced another unwanted behavior where groups of bots might block each other, and individuals rerouting as a result could sometimes even temporarily split up roaming patrols that were supposed to be working together. If you noticed more lone combat bots wandering around in Beta 14, that was likely the reason and the latest behavior updates should resolve that now.

Some other random demonstrative recordings from development, not necessarily QoL...

If you've ever tried the Inventory(Components) and Inventory(Prototypes) hacks before and were slightly (or enormously :P) underwhelmed, checking out this sample of the new behavior in a small area of this Research map might change your mind:



Concussive RPG explosions now push items away from the source:



For those of you who know what ECA is, there's a convenient reminder of your current level directly in the HUD, which will also update in real time so you can see the effect your actions are having on it:



Any PSU Rigger lovers out there? Of course there are! Well, you also now have the option to use your improvised proximity explosives as time bombs instead:



It's now possible to output the entire combat log as messages are generated, for any external realtime monitoring and processing needs (advanced.cfg: combatLogStreaming):



[hr][/hr]

And there it is, I've said as much as I can without giving away any of the best bits--you'll just have to see for yourself!

I can't believe Beta 15 ended up adding even more items than Beta 14, which was already crazy xD

I originally thought we'd get maybe 40-50 new ones this time at most, but design needs present themselves when they do, same with adding new robots, new encounters, or generally any other content to improve the quality of the experience while aiming for a particular vision, and it had to be done :D

Thanks to all of you, and a special thanks to the patrons for your ongoing support of my work to help bring yet more content to everyone! With the epic reorganization of the 450-page TODO list that went into preparation for Beta 15 in particular, there's an even more refined list from which to pull in more features alongside the remaining planned expansions--the Unchained are coming, and much to the dismay of some inhabitants of Tau Ceti IV, the Merchants will follow...

The leaderboards will soon be archived and reset for our new version followed by stat analysis from our tens of thousands of runs submitted from Beta 14.

Cogmind's 11th annual review is available over on the dev blog, summarizing a year of massive updates on both the interface and content side. We got larger fonts, map zooming, multiple UI layouts, a whole new faction and two new maps, with much more to come just around the corner.

Inside you'll also find some dev stats and a selection of community content from art to popular videos and streams.

The upcoming Beta 15 is already a significant update in its current state and shaping up to be a great release for players old and new alike!