Cogmind News

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.



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

A few days back I put out a first little patch for the huge Beta 13 "Zoom All The Things" release and left a link to the changelog/notes in the main announcement comments (minor things and save-compatible). This time we're back with an even bigger patch with some new QoL features, so I figured I'd combine news of the two with an actual patch announcement here to catch you all up on the latest features.

There were a few little QoL things I really wanted to get out the door for Beta 13 right before release day, but despite working into the wee hours of the morning, there wasn't quite enough time... So instead I've worked into the wee hours of the morning for the entire past week to bring you these two patches xD

[h2]Cogmind Beta 13 patch 240229 changelog:[/h2]

• NEW: Popup notification for Options menu settings that require restart/new run to take effect
  
• NEW: Some meta info and events obtained via Terminal access normally visible in Non-modal UI layout message log now available in all layouts via Shell
  
• NEW: Subdwellers and Zionites currently positioned in Twisted Machinery will start blinking out to reveal and emphasize that situation
  
• FIX: Entering examine mode while Cogmind not in view could in some orientations cause temporary cursor positioning issues [biznut, darkwing_terror]
  
• FIX: Options menu list popups could stretch beyond bottom window edge in new modal layouts [zxc]
  
• FIX: New world route became unintended way to acquire certain hidden achievement [KillTheWhales]
  
• FIX: New crash on accessing Security Stations hack on Garrison interior Terminal due to hotfix patch [dr.hermelin]
  
• FIX: Relative Vulnerability visualization temporary name indicator partially obscured in modal layouts
  

Here you can see our new popup notification in action. I know not everyone will notice the descriptions mentioning restart on a few of the options that require it to take effect, so this will help reinforce that.



We've got some new bots capable of taking advantage of the relatively new capability of moving through so-called "twisted machinery," and since they appear so early in the world, at the time you may not have weapons strong enough to actually hit or hurt them (or realize you need to use them) while they're hiding in said machinery, but you also can't see it since they're obscuring it... so now we've got cause to blink them in this particular situation:



The blinking effect doesn't start until a few seconds after they've come into sight or entered your current map view, in case there is other more important status info you need to know, like whether they've spotted you or not, but otherwise they'll keep doing that while it's relevant.

I also finally bit the bullet and put more "meta" (non-direct terminal shell info) directly in the shell output when machine hacking. This is especially for modal layout users, who can't simultaneously see the message log where this information normally appears. Here's an example of getting an ALERT message mirrored inside the shell:



A number of other message types can appear there as well, including perhaps most importantly any time you prelearn data about future maps! Also applies to hacking feedback effects, and this new look was also extended to our original advanced.cfg botnet notice.

Here's another example with mirrored intel acquisition:



That was the first quick patch--but there's more! This second one went out today.

Again nothing major in here, just cleaning up some of the new features and addressing a handful of small issues, but definitely worth the update if you've been playing the new Beta 13! (it's another automatic update on Steam, just mentioning for the DRM-free folks)

As a minor patch, existing Beta 13 saves/runs in progress are fully compatible.

[h2]Cogmind Beta 13 patch 240304 changelog:[/h2]

• NEW: 1 new encounter variant
  
• NEW: Added more cases of machine hacking shell directly confirming content of meta intel originally shown in message log
  
• NEW: Using '-' key in Modal UI layout automatically switches to combat log mode and scrolls it open even if not already in that mode
  
• NEW: Position of window in Windowed mode remains constant during game over screens and font changes
  
• NEW: Option to calculate and display available mass support before reaching next overweight threshold (advanced.cfg: showOverweightMassThresholdRemainder)
  
• MOD: Plasma Cutter's new effect description updated to explicitly indicate it works on blast doors
  
• MOD: Cobblers start producing components earlier
  
• MOD: LMB on inventory scrolling buttons scrolls by page instead of one at a time
  
• MOD: Custom reduced fullscreen dimensions remain within specified limits rather than trying to fill display during game over screens
  
• FIX: System Guards silently retained some old pre-Beta 12 functionality [CaptainWinky]
  
• FIX: Salvaged Cobbler Units could have unusual counter values when first used [CaptainWinky]
  
• FIX: Unique new build type classification applied under too few circumstances [CaptainWinky]
  
• FIX: New layout architecture caused custom window heights greater than default to revert to default for duration of game over screens [Vormithrax]
  
• FIX: New special item dropped under wrong circumstances during particular NPC encounter [doshdoshington, Runia, aoemica]
  
• FIX: Pressing ESC erased active item labels and reset filter type without restoring other input functions to overlapping controls (-/=) until normal expiry
  
• FIX: Under some layouts and circumstances, world map info window close button may not highlight while cursor hovering
  
• FIX: Item info window in 45-row UI layouts did not correctly place corner brackets for handful of parts with "No Image Data"
  
• FIX: [Polymind mode] Taking a Cobbler host resulted in zero matter capacity
  

Among the new features we have a new advanced.cfg option for those of you who play more overweight builds and want to do a little less mathing: showOverweightMassThresholdRemainder. Setting that will change your overweight indicator from the simple Ox# format to the more esoteric X%Y. This will both make you cooler and also let you know that you've exceeded your mass support X times over and have a surplus of Y mass remaining before you hit the next threshold and get even slower :P (think of that % in there as conceptually like a modulo)

Here you can see it in operation:



While most mouse users scroll the inventory with the wheel, those buttons at the bottom/top of a larger inventory technically also scroll the contents, but in the past only did so one at a time. Those now serve as near page-wise scrolling buttons, which may be more convenient for those who actually want to use them:



For a while now it's bugged me that there seemed to be some issue with completely resetting the subcategory part label system, and sure enough there was! Pressing Escape will now truly and completely reset it, which not many probably noticed before, but there'd be a short duration during which it could affect whether pure keyboard players could access the extended combat log with the '-' key after having recently used the categorical labels. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's the fact that you can specify that you only want to see map labels for certain types of parts by cycling through them, for example only power sources, or propulsion, or matter, etc., instead of everything, which after a big battle can obviously get a little cramped!



(You get these via Tab/Shift-Tab or -/= while showing item labels.)

Tomorrow I'll be doing some Beta 13 streaming of this latest build, but not starting from scratch! We'll pick up in the late game where I left off in a run a started on my own a few days back, after having sterilized a Research map and lucking into a VL-GR5 encounter which is about to start. (Ended up spending a huge amount of time the past few days working on the game again, including some reported issues and also a bunch of these patch contents I listed out while doing my run, so never got a chance to finish it xD)

A couple days after the Beta 13 release, the Leaderboards were also reset so we're starting from scratch again (old runs are archived and still accessible, as usual, with some stat analysis to come).

Update: Stream/run completed, here's the results :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9armPEkp5I

WARNING: Upscaled and zoomable Cogmind has landed :D

Beta 13 is here, and with it comes larger text and the ability to double the map tile size on the fly, including a huge range of supporting QoL features. Yeah there's a new map, new items and some new bots, but our primary focus today is expanding the range of displays suitable for playing Cogmind, and one way to achieve that is to provide multiple new UI layouts capable of squeezing the terminal data from 60 rows down to 45.

Before examining the sizeable changelog as a whole, let's jump right in with demos of our main features!



Cogmind's original full-size layout is still a thing, now dubbed the "Non-modal" UI layout in the Options menu, and it is in this layout that the new map zoom feature is likely the most useful, as you can see here:



That particular image happens to be 1440p, but if you fullscreen it on another resolution (for example 1080p) you'll ultimately get the same effect. (Many layout images in this announcement can be opened to their much larger form.)

But for those of you who really want everything to get bigger, and a new default going forward, we have the new "Semi-modal" UI layout (1080p sample below, see also 1440p and 2160p):



And yep, if you want to you can also even zoom the map in a modal layout, resulting in this (another 1080p sample, here using one of several new fonts: Tamsyn):



Of course, as you can see reducing the number of rows in our terminal also meant shrinking our map view, to which the answer is our third UI layout option: "Modal," in order to see more map by hiding some windows (1080p below, see also 1440p and 2160p):



Also whenever you want it there's "Modal" zoomed, if you must :)



That should give you a pretty good overview of the new sizing options possible in Beta 13, and you'll also find yet more new font styles to choose from, including some typefaces at sizes they were not previously available at. Support is included all the way up to 5K resolutions.

But there's a lot more to Beta 13, as you'll see below...



Let's take a break from the interface for a moment to highlight the fact that Beta 13 adds a new map! And it's down really really low! That means it's accessible, right? Well, in a sense :P

The so-called "Subcaves" are not recommended carefree adventuring territory, and anyone who isn't aware of this area's existence may not even discover it for a little while, since it's slightly hidden away for that reason (also for lore reasons).

The Subcaves are related to more content to come in Beta 14 (really content that was supposed to be released alongside them before before this whole exciting UI diversion), and will thus become more relevant then, but even now, being a whole new map it is indeed where a good chunk of the new Beta 13 stuff can be found. Inside you may meet some friends, and some not-so-friends, and probably also some wtf-subsub-you-die-now. Definitely some weird stuff going on in there, more of the background to which will start coming to light with the upcoming Scraptown debut.



How about those modal UI layouts?! There's actually more to them than just looking at screenshots--you'll want to understand a few related new features as well. Although I've added tutorial messages for the really important stuff, it's worth demonstrating some key points here.

First of all, if you change your UI layout setting in the Options menu, remember you'll need to restart for it to take effect.



On restart, this change also resets your font and calculates a new optimal map size for you, so if you were using an alternative font set you may need to select it again, and some of the styles may be different. Everyone loading up Beta 13 for the first time will automatically find themselves in the Semi-modal layout, our new default.

Aside from the smaller map view, one of the major differences in using these other layouts is that eventually you will be playing with a modal inventory, as in the inventory window is hidden from view, as you can see here in the bottom right:



However, this change doesn't occur until you have evolved enough part slots that the UI space is needed, and there is a lot of QoL to make your modal inventory experience as effortless as possible. For example many actions with even just the potential to require inventory interaction will automatically open and close it for you, such as grabbing a part to drag-dop it with the mouse:



The example above also shows further interactions after manually using the new INVENTORY button, and you can choose to open the inventory and leave it open while doing other things if you like, such as consecutive manipulation of a group of nearby parts. The GIF upload gets kinda messed up a bit at the bottom for some reason, but you can also see that any time an item is added to the inventory, even while it's closed there is a new indicator down there to show the addition.

As usual, using the typewise direct swapping menu is also a convenient way to achieve that goal without opening the inventory at all:



Note: Keyboard players can use the 'i' key to toggle the inventory. How convenient!

In order to keep your inventory visible/non-modal for as long as possible, by default your part category headers will also disappear for a couple floors in the mid-game as you first evolve enough slots to otherwise cause the inventory to hide. They are replaced by bars along the sides to indicate the slots for each of the four categories (which are also labeled by type when empty), and the bars themselves double as the CYCLE buttons specifically for mouse users, as you can see in this demo:



If you end up not liking that feature and would prefer your inventory instead simply disappear earlier, there is an advanced.cfg option to toggle this behavior ("condenseSlotTypeHeaders").

While the Semi-modal layout is called such because you have immediate access to all windows for at least part of a run, as you saw earlier the Modal layout starts with multiple hidden windows. These would be the informational windows that normally appear above the map, and accessing them should be pretty intuitive--it's the same old buttons and keys, and you may not even need to open them much of the time since messages can temporarily appear over the map.

Using the extended log will even give you two columns of log messages:



There are advanced.cfg options if you want to adjust the number of messages, or how long each remains visible.

For lots more demos and related modal UI features, see Part 5 of my Full UI Upscaling series on the dev blog, or to learn all about the design and implementation from start to finish, begin with Part 1 which covers the history and theory before continuing through all the mockups and engine features that made it possible.



A tutorial and flashing notification will make sure you know about the map zoom if you don't find it yourself, but it's probably fairly obvious with the all-caps ZOOM button staring at you from the top of the map (unless you're a pure keyboard player with the cursor off, in which case that unnecessary button is hidden and you get to use the 'z' key, how convenient!). Holding Shift while using the mouse wheel is another way to zoom, convenient for anyone who happens to be looking around the map via mouse-based Shift-panning.

A quick demo of panning around the map and zooming in and out (this is just in a small window for sharability's sake, mind you--yours will be larger):



Because zooming reduces how far ahead you, the player, can see, you now also have the option to manually designate a new view centerpoint, useful if you're more interested in a particular direction. Mouse users hold the right mouse button to do this, while keyboard players can use 's' ('s'et centerpoint) in examine mode. To restore the centering behavior to normal, just do the same at your own location.

Mouse centerpoint demo:



Keyboard centerpoint demo taking advantage of cursor jumping:



Because doing this via keyboard is somewhat less convenient, in keyboard mode there are also algorithmic approaches that will automatically adjust the centerpoint depending on movement direction and the surroundings, like so:



This behavior normally only applies if zoomed in while using the Non-modal UI layout (which has a larger map to begin with) and there are multiple algorithms to choose from (or deactivate completely, but I've found that once you get used to it the default algorithm can be pretty useful). You can also temporarily set a manual centerpoint to override it. These features and more related options are covered in detail in the manual's new section on "Map Zooming" under "Accessibility."

The other primary drawback to being zoomed in is seeing so much less of the map at once--given a square map view, 2x zoom means you're seeing only a quarter of the normal area you could see before. In a ranged combat environment like Cogmind that was designed with large maps, lots of potential threats, and correspondingly far detection and attack ranges in mind, that means a lot of potentially important info is not in sight at once. Although panning the map, utilizing centerpoints, or occasionally zooming out are useful for proactive management of situational awareness, good QoL can save us quite a lot of time... Bring on the QoL!

Map zoom QoL mainly comes in two categories: markers and responses...

There are offscreen markers for visible robots (here using drones to help expand FOV for demo purposes):



There are offscreen markers for newly-spotted-but-not-yet-labeled items:



There are offscreen markers for sensor data (GIF's not uploading right but you get the idea):



And where it's important, the map view will automatically shift to show offscreen events of importance, like a new threat:



Autoshifting will respond to Watcher reporting, Operator spotting, Heavy active sensor sources, special machine pings... basically the kinds of things you will almost certainly want to see. A lot of this behavior can also be customized via advanced.cfg.

Over on the dev blog I did a whole multipart blog series on map zooming, and in the concluding QoL segment you can see lots more about the above features, plus others, or read back through the entire development process.



We still have yet to get to the actual changelog and its many secondary features, which is another of those really long ones I decided would be easier to digest if more finely categorized.

[h3]Beta 13 "Zoom All The Things" (240227) changelog (excerpt):[/h3]

[h3]Highlights[/h3]

• NEW: Increased text/tile size by ~33% via 45-row UI layouts, affecting map view area and window modality (new default setting, adjust in Options menu)
  
• NEW: Zoom the map view, toggling via 'z' key, the mouse button just above the map, or the scroll wheel while panning the map (Shift)
  
• NEW: While map zoomed, or if using modal UI layouts, many objects outside view area that would normally be visible are reflected via offscreen markers
  
• NEW: Branch map "Subcaves"
  
• NEW: 35 new items (including new mechanics)
  
• MOD: Optimized audio asset loading reduces game startup time by up to 40% on some systems [Luigi]
  
• MOD: Optimized rendering increases maximum FPS by 50% or more, especially in tiles mode during heavy movement or animations [Luigi]
  

[h3]Content[/h3]

• NEW: 18 new encounters
  
• NEW: 3 new Complex 0b10 map events
  
• NEW: 3 new derelict robot classes, each with new AI
  
• NEW: 2 new robot tiles
  
• NEW: 2 more unique named NPCs
  
• NEW: 2 new trap types
  
• NEW: 1 new turret variant
  
• NEW: Multiple lore entries related to new content
  

[h3]QoL / UI[/h3]

• NEW: Multiple new font sets based on three new typefaces: Tamsyn, Swanston, Cherry
  
• NEW: Numerous additional font typefaces and variants for higher resolutions based on autoscaled low-resolution options
  
• NEW: Support for 5K screens (multiple size 48 font sets, or size 64 for modal layouts)
  
• NEW: button just above map view while hostiles in FOV, includes tally and clickability to shift view and highlight enemies
  
• NEW: While map zoomed, or if using modal UI layouts, if new hostiles to label enter FOV but are currently out of view, view shifts to include them
  
• NEW: If certain events occur while out of map view (Watcher/Operator/machine ping/etc), view shifts to include them (advanced.cfg: shiftViewForEvents)
  
• NEW: Hold RMB on map to set custom relative view centerpoint (centering map view focuses on that position instead, including while moving)
  
• NEW: While in examine mode, press 's' to set custom relative view centerpoint (overrides automated relative view shifting, set on self to reset)
  
• NEW: While non-modal layout map zoomed in keyboard mode, view centerpoint auto-adjusts to show more in direction of exploration (see manual for options)
  
• NEW: Hidden modal inventory automatically toggled open during relevant 'p' part management options and modal drop process (keyboard mode)
  
• NEW: Adding '!' anywhere in item tag forces it to require confirmation to attach
  
• NEW: Operators preparing to lock Terminal due to IFF handshake failure temporarily flash a marker at their location, or last known location on leaving FOV
  
• NEW: Mines infestation event includes input block when triggered, to ensure time to respond even when playing fast
  
• NEW: Long-range pathfinding avoids cave-in areas outside FOV based on location's last known state
  
• NEW: Option to block all pathfinding through areas with cave-in potential, even if no other route (advanced.cfg: blockCaveinAreasForPathfinding)
  
• NEW: Optional warning when move might cause a cave-in (advanced.cfg: warnOnCaveinMove)
  
• NEW: Adding item to a large inventory autosorts by type and scrolls to location in list, momentarily highlighting it
  
• NEW: Removing item from a large inventory, or other changes to inventory contents, retains scroll state as best possible
  
• NEW: Modifying specific inventory items highlights and centers on them, for example repairing broken parts, drones returning to inventory bays, etc.
  
• NEW: Select items with lengthier descriptions may include a More button in their info window that gives access to additional details
  
• NEW: In modal UI layouts, primary Advanced Commands list split into two pages
  
• NEW: Option to force message and audio feedback on startup and upon entering -1 if scoresheet uploading is inactive (advanced.cfg: uploadScoresReminder)
  
• NEW: Option to have map item labels specify size of unidentified items if greater than 1 (advanced.cfg: itemLabelAddUnidentifiedSize)
  
• NEW: Option to adjust maximum number of lines visible for on-map message log in Modal 45-row UI layout (advanced.cfg: mapMessageLogMaxLength)
  
• NEW: Option to adjust maximum duration on-map message log messages in Modal 45-row UI layout (advanced.cfg: mapMessageLogDuration)
  
• MOD: World map fully opens almost instantly instead of tracing route
  
• MOD: Removed inventory sorting by integrity and mass
  
• MOD: Map intel mode toggle key changed from 'z' to 'm'
  
• MOD: Advanced Commands help for parts window no longer lists a number of simple commands already found on Basic commands page
  
• MOD: Gameover screen once again reports score upload status in real time
  
• MOD: Updated overall formatting of some font set names
  
• MOD: Increased timing leniency of various repeat input required to confirm an action, especially with regard to part manipulation
  
• MOD: Increased accuracy and smoothness of map panning via Shift+mouse
  
• MOD: Interface feedback messages use different text typing sound than regular message logs (advanced.cfg: muteTextSfx setting applies to this as well)
  
• MOD: Intel markers in map view that overlap known sensor data blink instead of showing persistently
  
• MOD: Options menu font set selection menu ordered from largest applicable set to smallest, in windowed mode
  

[h3]Mechanics / Items[/h3]

• NEW: Salvageable matter may merge with existing free matter when dropped
  
• NEW: Plasma Cutters reimagined with new abilities
  
• NEW: Tractor Beam effect includes animation and SFX
  
• NEW: Repair Stations may release functionality level-appropriate backup parts on taking damage
  
• NEW: Transport Network Coupler places sabotage intel marker at location of third-party cargo convoy interruption if active at time of report
  
• NEW: Bonus points for completing transforming item quests
  
• NEW: Rigged power sources now show their status as RIGGED and provide relevant context help to explain related mechanics
  
• NEW: Component Analysis Suite explicitly indicates it cannot identify alien technology
  
• NEW: Shielding utilities' effect data explicitly indicate they cannot protect against overflow damage, as implied in manual
  
• MOD: Ramming no longer explicitly increases target salvage potential
  
• MOD: All melee weapon sever crit chances increased by approximately 25% of original value
  
• MOD: Reduced falloff of all electromagnetic launchers by 1
  
• MOD: Increased range of all 12-range electromagnetic launchers to 14
  
• MOD: Guided projectiles using waypoints compare cumulative range against maximum weapon range, rather than absolute range
  
• MOD: Throwing Claymore stacks reduced in size
  
• MOD: Multislot propulsion no longer fabs in pairs
  
• MOD: Sterilization system takes longer to melt objects in maps which start at colder ambient temperature
  
• MOD: Sterilization system prevents further accumulation of machine destruction value towards score
  
• MOD: Search patrol responses converted to assault dispatches in extended game area C
  
• MOD: Newly spawned robots start with full energy reserves instead of base energy amount
  
• MOD: Some friendly NPCs that go hostile on being attacked are more lenient to allow for an accidental hit
  
• MOD: Non-0b10 Mechanics/Surgeons or those with explicit AID order use shorter ranges when searching for repair targets
  
• MOD: Allied Researchers unable to identify more types of non-0b10 tech
  

[h3]Combat Log[/h3]

• NEW: While combat log detail set to High or above, manually scrolling contents away from bottom automatically opens and scrolls expanded combat log view
  
• NEW: Combat log inserts "???" where the source of an attack effect is unknown
  
• NEW: Setting combat log detail to High or above includes victim name when part or core hit or destroyed
  
• NEW: Setting combat log detail to High or above reports triggered traps, disruptions, projectile penetration, and some critical effects
  
• NEW: Setting combat log detail to Full reports all critical effects, immediate meltdowns due to thermal transfer, and most terrain destruction
  
• NEW: Combat log explicitly identifies melee followups, sneak attacks, and Cogmind gunslinging target switches where applicable
  
• NEW: Programmer hacking attempts/results also reported in combat log
  
• MOD: CALC window renamed COMBAT
  
• MOD: Combat log friendly hit/miss messages displayed in shades of white/gray instead of green
  
• MOD: Multiprojectile weapons merge all projectiles into single combat log entry for hit tally reporting
  
• MOD: Combat log no longer includes hit part/core coverage/exposure value, regardless of setting
  

[h3]Help[/h3]

• NEW: Automated saves on map entry in Adventurer/Explorer mode do not occur if more than one-third of your part slots were empty on leaving previous map
  
• NEW: Updated manual section on "Accessibility" to reflect new layout options and map zooming features
  
• NEW: Added new combat log features to Advanced UI > Combat Log Window manual section
  
• NEW: Contextual tutorial message about moves that may cause cave-ins
  
• NEW: Tutorial message about map zooming feature, and flashing button reminder
  

[h3]Scoresheet / Data[/h3]

• NEW: 23 new scoresheet entries (total = 1,058)
  
• MOD: user/meta.bin file renamed progress.bin
  
• MOD: Leaderboards display different locations based on win type rather than "Ascended"
  

[h3]Bugs[/h3]

• NEW: Fatal error screen gives full details of internal error message, as found in run.log
  
• FIX: New crash as of Beta 12 while animating one of the rarer ending sequences [MTF]
  
• FIX: [RPGLIKE mode] New Beta 12 caves encounter crashed map on first turn after entry [Infomantis]
  

So that's, uh, part of the changelog. The full thing is more than twice as long, a bit excessive to include here, so the less important bits were relegated to a separate extended changelog which as usual you can find packaged with the game or online here.

Saves from earlier versions are incompatible with Beta 13, but even if you're on Steam and Cogmind automatically updates, Beta 12 is still available via its own legacy branch and you can roll back to finish a run in progress first if you like.



For Beta 13 the combat log has been significantly expanded, including almost every possible detail when set to the highest level. Patrons have consistently put lots of votes towards seeing this happen, and while it never quite topped the list, that consistency and a contingent of really persistent optimization-loving fans convinced me it was about time to do it. If you like logs, drop by Discord and thank those folks :)

Simply scrolling the combat log also opens a full-height version that's easier to read if you want to examine a greater number of attacks/turns:



For a range of visual samples and explanations of what you can find in the new combat log, see SITREP #51.

One sample you won't find there (because it was just added recently) is a new explicit indicator for when the source of an attack is unknown:





You may notice that Cogmind Beta 13 starts up more quickly. Of course it's not exactly instantaneous--there's a lot of resources to prepare and the game loads most things it could possibly need right from the start. Definitely faster, though, by up to 40%!

This is actually the doing of Luigi, one of Cogmind's biggest supporters over the years, so a big round of applause to Luigi for his work with the open source libraries my engine depends on. And it doesn't stop there! Luigi has also contributed optimizations to SDL itself, improving Cogmind's rendering performance by 50% or more.

These are some insane numbers.

Luigi you're amazing.

(Part of Luigi's impetus here was to get Cogmind running smoothly on the latest Apple hardware--he is also the creator of mods to make that possible, instructions and links for which are available here, if interested.)

So you're still here, eh?

I guess let's round off this announcement with a collection of random stuff from the changelog I happened to record along the way :)

You'll find a few items now have a [M]ore button, generally avoided and not needed, but in a handful of cases where we have a weapon (which already mostly fill their stats page to begin with) that also possesses a more involved special ability we need some extra room for the description. (This button may apply either to an item's Effect section or description at the bottom.)



The world map was rebuilt to animate instantly on being opened rather than tracing your route!



The Plasma Cutter has a completely different use now, instead for safely cutting up explosive machines, or making it through almost any blast door given enough time.



I discovered that simulated debris from destruction out of sight and not nearby you was only working in ASCII mode, not tiles, leading to somewhat cleaner environments in the latter case even where a previous battle took place. Here's a comparison before and after the fix, showing what a room looks like after a battle between some derelicts and 0b10 forces also destroyed a nearby machine:



Obviously if there happen to be any Workers nearby they'll clean it up anyway, but still, it should be there until then! (or it's a map with no Serfs, or they're all far away or whatever)

Mass and Integrity sorting were removed from the inventory window, leaving only type sorting (forward and reverse), so that button looks different now as well:



This was to regain the keys m/i for easy keyboard access to zooming (after also moving the original 'z' intel to 'm'ap intel) and modal inventory, our new UI features. Most people purely rely on type sort anyway, the largest inventories have shrunk since Beta 11, and the mass/integrity info can be relatively easily obtained and parsed by switching to the appropriate visualization mode anyway.

Your inventory will now maintain the same scroll position during manipulation, such as dropping parts, allowing more rapid dropping in succession:



And adding a new item to your inventory automatically sorts the list, scrolls to the new item's position, and highlights it for a moment:



(The original behavior was to always scroll to the end of your inventory list and put it there.)

The leaderboards now more explicitly indicate the location of each win (as originally reflected in the scoresheet) instead of showing all wins as simply "Ascended."



Once your score is uploaded (if you have opted in), the game over screen will also show the leaderboards URL for those who may not be aware of it. (As usual the full scoresheet still includes direct URLs to your online scoresheet data as well, at the end.)

Guided projectiles are finally capable of checking their cumulative travel distance against the weapon range, rather than using absolute range from the firing origin, so you'll be a little more limited in what weird stuff you can do with these types of weapons nearby your position, assuming you had enough waypoints :P



While using Refit at a Repair Station is usually going to be an easier option if that's your goal, in the interest of fun environmental interactions, destroyed Repair Stations may now randomly spill some of their backup parts:



Matter salvage is now capable of merging when it drops! See how this Recycler's destruction simply grows the original matter pile below it:



Similarly, matter spilled on top of a collection of parts and matter will sometimes attempt to instead combine with nearby existing matter. Across larger battlefields this can result in somewhat more concentrated matter and a little extra room for salvageable components that might otherwise be pushed further away, or crushed outright due to floor space being taken up by excessive matter. This had became somewhat more common given the newer ability of kinetic cannon strikes to blast usable matter off targets (even though that effect was already capable of matter merging).

Speaking of matter, Tractor Beams also now come with an animation and sound effect as they do their sucking (sorry for the smaller recording, a lot of these were done in my test environment just to have a record :P):



Many of the new items I described or alluded to in the months before embarking on the UI Quest are completed and still waiting on the sidelines for Beta 14, but the Subcaves and new bots and encounters already added in Beta 13 do of course include a decent chunk of them--35 new items in all, so nothing to sneeze at. More than half of these are pretty special, just a taste of the increasingly unique items and build possibilities to come.





About that Beta 14, I hope to release it sooner rather than later. This will not be the same kind of wait as seen for the previous releases, in part because a decent chunk of its content is complete, and in part because I did split up the Scraptown expansion into multiple separate versions to keep them more reasonable. If you recall from my Year 10 of the Cogmind annual review, we've already got general plans out to Beta 17, and I hope that each of these releases won't be quite so huge so they can be delivered in a more timely manner.

Due to reorienting this version towards new interface options, some other features I've previously mentioned as slated for Beta 13, like updated movement behavior for large robot AI, have been moved back to Beta 14. This also includes the Scrap Engine's proper location, so that can still be found simply lying on the ground at the entrance to Recycling for now :P

Thank you for your support, currently no plans for 1.0, just more free expansions (10th different ending coming up!), hope you enjoy the new UI layouts and other features, leave reviews :)

Update 240304: We now also have a couple of week 1 Beta 13 patches, adding yet more QoL features and a few adjustments, described here.

Early this month I introduced Cogmind's first new upscaled layout option, then immediately followed up with development of our second new option! While the other option (to become the new player default) is "Semi-modal," we'll now have a third and even more extreme "Modal" layout which, as you can see in the sample above, hides away the top-side consoles in order to reclaim more of the map view.

That sample screenshot happens to be taken with optional map zoom activated as well--although I think the upscaled grid size across the board means modal layout players are less likely to need or want to zoom the map, the function is of course available and the new zoom-related QoL will come in especially useful.

With the top-side consoles hidden, message/combat logs can be opened and read in full as usual, but for convenience they'll also show temporarily over the map (adjustable count and duration), as seen here with two columns of message log data:



A mix of message log (left) and combat log (right):



Above the map are the familiar buttons for interacting with what is normally visible in those consoles:



See below for some additional sample screenshots from the Modal UI layout (open images to full size if necessary).

Early game (zoomed, 1080p):



Late game (not zoomed, 1080p):



The same scene as above, but in 1440p and using one of several new fonts added to Beta 13 (Tamsyn):



If you want to see the Modal layout in action, earlier this week I streamed a run making use of it, actually the conclusion to my last stream that began with the other/Semi-modal layout:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XolIIvhIta0

All three UI layout options are available right from the top of the Options menu (requires a restart to take effect):



More information, as well as a summary of the Semi-modal layout, can be found on the dev blog in Part 5 of the the "Full UI Upscaling" series, "Completion and Demos."


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If you're itching to try these new layouts yourself, the good news is... they're coming next week! The results of testing have been very positive, and Beta 13 release is now scheduled for February 27th :D

I recently finished my Adventures in Map Zooming series over on the dev blog, and the most recent and final part covers what is from a player perspective the most important zooming-related topic: QoL!

You can read the full article for every detail, but this being a set of vital new features I figure it's worth providing a quick summary here in announcement form as well.



Before we get to that, another important notice: Since last week's introduction of a new fully-upscaled UI layout, I also had the opportunity to stream that layout and demonstrate it in action while talking about its various features:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf4pS_sph2Q

Work on modal layouts has continued this week, including the addition of our third even more modal variant I know some you have been looking forward to as well. Yep, the "Phase 4" UI is already on the way... I'll be featuring that one in my next stream.



Spinning the mouse wheel is normally a convenient way to wait for turns to pass, and we wouldn't want to take that away, but many folks are already using the mouse to pan the map view around while holding Shift, and Shift-Wheel is not taken, so provides us a natural alternative for toggling zoom state rather than always requiring usage of the ZOOM button or 'z' key.



That’s low-hanging fruit, though. We’re going to need much more powerful QoL...

Beginning in Beta 13, you'll be able to manually adjust the map centerpoint to keep more focused in a particular direction of interest (important while zoomed in because the visible map area is smaller):



Non-mouse players can similarly set a manual centerpoint via keyboard, which is still fairly fast if you're familiar with jumping the examine cursor:



Keyboard players can also take advantage of several types of algorithms for automatically adjusting their centerpoint while zoomed, trying to shift the view without any manual input in order to keep interesting features visible (it seems weird and takes some getting used to, but at least in the non-modal UI layout it works as a pretty nice supplementary feature):





Once you’re zoomed in on only a quarter of the normal map area, it’s literally impossible to always see everything you might need to see in every situation. We need new indicators for important objects outside the current map view, especially those which are still within FOV (and probably even attack range!).

While manually panning the map or designating a centerpoint to keep an eye on a particular direction is useful, and temporarily zooming out to get a general idea of the surroundings is another option, to save time there are a variety of new markers that can appear at the edges of the map view to denote objects in that direction. You’ll see markers for offscreen hostiles, non-hostiles (both neutral and friendly), new items, and sensor data. Each marker category uses its own unique background color, and in the case of sensor data is also darker and blinks in and out to reflect the fact that it is not a directly visible object like the others. Items are only marked until automatically labeled for the first time after entering view.

A demo of flashing offscreen zoom markers for visible robots (I have some drones out here to help demonstrate):



Threats appear on a dark red background, while non-hostile robots use dark-green. As usual, the colors used are different if colorblind mode is active.

Flashing offscreen zoom markers for new items, which use a dark gray background:



Dark offscreen sensor data markers with a low-frequency blink out effect:



Indicators are great, but still not quite enough. After all, what do you generally want to do when a new threat comes into view? A quick visual check! What exactly are they, what’s their status, do they have company, what’s the surrounding environment like... These can be important questions to answer before making your next decision, and by default Cogmind already pauses for a moment in these situations in order to let the player have a moment to take it in (and avoid accidentally wasting valuable turns), so why not also use that opportunity to automatically shift the view over to spot the threat?

Automatically shifting the view a bit more to the left as soon as a Sentry is spotted down at the end of a corridor:



Another autoshifting example, in this case simultaneously spotting enemies down two different corridors and shifting to put them all in view:



The full article has other samples, such as shifting the map view to highlight a Watcher reporting a threat to nearby allies, or entering a Heavy's potential sensor range. Automated shifting can also be applied to useful situations such as machine pings (RIF Installer discovery, Zion Terminals...).

whether zoomed or not, another new feature that became more desirable with the advent of zooming is the new HOSTILES button that can appear above the map. This serves as a reminder that there are enemies in view, and is also clickable to center on said enemies (or back on oneself):



There you have it, anyone planning to stick with the original 60-row UI layout and combining that with map zooming will likely be making heavy use of many of these features, which will also come in handy even when not zoomed in if using a new modal layout.

Progress has been so good that unless there are too many unexpected discoveries during ongoing testing, Beta 13 might just release a lot sooner than later... this month even? (I do hope that we can get some more reviews going--been a slow... years in that regard :P)

Again I'll soon be streaming further playtesting of the modal layouts, including the newest one I have yet to properly introduce. Sharing that will probably be a good opportunity to finish my other run, the melee-crab-turned-flier :)

Aside: While there's no Community section to today's announcement, I feel it's worth pointing to a recent masterpiece by u/dogawesome. They've been posting a lot of memes to r/Cogmind lately, and recently concluded with a video meme compilation that summarizes a lot of Cogmind experiences in a pretty funny way. While one could say it contains a lot of spoiler references, they're almost all so esoteric and indicated by acronyms such that you only know if you know, so maybe not really that spoilery after all. In any case, consider checking it out here for some laughs :)