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Found a cannnon with 3 n, see screenshot

Resurrecting this old thread with a new suggestion:

Can the behavior of the 1-4 keys be extended so the flags stay on the screen as long as the key is pressed?
This way you have more time for reading if there are a lot of items on the screen.

The F-keys already have modifier functions, too. Like Ctrl-F5 toggle FPS, Ctrl-Shift-F5 toggles FPS capping, Ctrl-F7 toggles tactical HUD mode. There are more forgot (and some that I use to access debugging features in my builds), but these are all secondary features.

Ok, didn't know that 

Just how many items do you carry around??? I've never bothered with more than one Hcp. Storage Unit, and that only puts you up to 12 items at full capacity, or only 2 more than you can view at once (0~1 more if you count the fact that you can see the previous/next items in your inventory).

Actually, 12 items was my max. inventory size. The thing that bugged me most was not being able to instantly see if I needed to pick up another wheel or if I already had a spare one. I had to press scroll or reorder the inventory to get that information, hiding some other items in the process.

Or keep the 0-9 shortcuts and [ ] to slide the assignment along the items (with possible scrolling).

I also like this idea. It is a very good compromise in my opinion.
In fact, I also thought about a variation of this: all inventory items get numbered 0 to 9, then beginning again with 0 to 9 and so on. Only one block of digits is "active", the other numbers are greyed out. The user can then use tab (or some other key) to switch the active number block.

Maybe pressing and holding the mouse wheel?

UI suggestion: when pressing and holding the wait key, the game could automatically stop waiting once an enemy shows up or a fabricator has completed.

Holding down the wait key is a sure way to get yourself killed in any other roguelike, but this would make it safe to use. Also, no new key binding would be necessary.

That kind of inconsistency in the control scheme isn't acceptable from a design standpoint, and the F-keys already have their own uses.

As do the number keys (show enemies, items, etc). Only with shift/ctrl/alt they are used to manage the inventory. The F keys could be handled in the same way.

Technically not every keyboard is guaranteed to have F-keys, or they're not always easily accessible

Granted - but with that argument, no roguelike would support numpads.

If I were to add this feature the only partial solution I see is to make an extended inventory only available to mouse users, though that "solution" then goes against the principle of making sure every feature is accessible regardless whether using keyboard or mouse.

Agreed, any feature should be available to both mouse and keyboard users.

As an alternative approach, remember that you can use t/m/i to forward-sort and reverse-sort your inventory based on different characteristics, making it possible to manage even large inventories fairly easily with the 10 slots that are available.

I know the sorting features, but they do not solve the problem that you cannot see all your inventory items at once.

The main reason why I love Cogmind's interface so much is because you can see *everything* on the screen - equipment, inventory, etc (not like in other roguelikes like nethack where you have to scroll through multiple screens of items to get your stuff managed).
The only limitation to this is the inventory when carrying more than 10 items :/

If you don't like the suggestion with the F keys, maybe there is another solution?

What's the problem about using the F keys? They should be available on every keyboard.
I personally wouldn't mind using numbers and F keys combined if that is your point. That's a very small price to pay for being able to more easily manage large inventories.
In case someone doesn't want this behavior, you could add a switch to the options to limit the inventory display to 10 items.

With a full Hcp. Storage Unit you cannot see your complete inventory, even if there is plenty free space in the equipped parts window directly above the inventory.
Would it be possible to dynamically adjust the inventory window so scrolling isn't necessary? As for the numbering, you could continue with the F keys (F1, F2, ...)

This would allow to show up to 22 inventory items, provided there is enough free space in the equipped parts window.

Wow Just out of interest: what can cause such an influence on the hit chance?

Actually I killed both guys with single shots... But that was only luck I guess. I did miss the one from the first screenshot, though.

Got another screenshot for you

I think I remember that when I targeted that same informer a few turns later, the hit chance was still around ~530. All other enemies had normal hit chance values. So if it really is a UI bug, it seemed to stick with that particular unit.

See screenshot...

There is one drawback when you store your files in the installation folder: if there are two people playing the game on the same pc, they need to have separate copies of the game... Considered the size of the game this isn't too much of an issue though

As a workaround for the game being installed in the program files folder:
icacls "C:\Program Files\COGMIND" /grant %USERNAME%:(CI)(OI)F
This grants all full access to the current user. Needs to be executed with admin privileges: press Win+X -> Command prompt (admin).

(I think this issue should be gone when you release on Steam - some of my Steam games also seem to store their savegames locally)

Where did you install the game to? If I place it in my Program Files folder I'm getting the same behavior. Probably because you need administrator privileges in order to write to the Program Files directory.

@Kyzrati: I think on Windows all user-specific data should be written to %appdata%.

See here: http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=24.0

I tried playing around with the fps cap myself and it seems to influence the cpu usage in a very linear manner.
My previous measures were not correct because the energy saving power profile was active which lowers cpu frequency and therefore causes higher cpu usage.

Current results (now with high performance power profile):

1 FPS => 0.3%
30 FPS => 4%
60 FPS => 8%
120 FPS => 18%
240 FPS => 25% (single core maxed out)

While I have no knowledge about the game engine, I would think that if there is nothing happening (no user input), the cpu usage should drop to near 0%. Except for the occasional flickering, the output doesn't need to be redrawn at all when the user isn't pressing any keys or moving the mouse.
Maybe there is an easy way to determine if a redraw is really necessary and simply reuse the last rendered frame if not?

I have a fairly new laptop (Samsung NP870Z5E) and even for me the CPU usage seems a little bit high.

Playing the game: 10-14% cpu usage
Game in background (windowed mode): 10-14% cpu usage
Minimized (windowed mode): 8% cpu usage
Alt-tabbed out of fullscreen mode: 8% cpu usage

Hyperthreading is disabled to get better measures.
I have also tried assigning the game to the dedicated graphics card just to be sure - no effect on cpu usage.

You are right, I completely missed the description for the autosort option...
I still do not get the point of switching it on, though.

When I first activated the option I thought it would automatically reorder the inventory according to the last selected inventory sort mode (t/m/i), which would make much more sense to me.

Indeed, turning it off stopped the random reordering. But still, is this behavior intended when autosorting is on?

The game seems to always use US keyboard layout, which is a little confusing when using manual input on terminals. Because I have a german keyboard, pressing z to enter manual mode won't work, because z is switched with y on german keyboards. The terminal commands themselves contain parantheses, which are also mapped differently on my keyboard (shift+8/9 on german keyboard).

Just a minor inconvenience for me, but I thought you should know.

http://frontype.com/keyboarding/540px-Computer-keyboard-Germany.svg.png

When pressing shift+number to display item stats, the inventory gets reordered in a seemingly random order.
The selected item usually gets reordered to position 1 or 2, but I haven't checked this thoroughly.

Another idea: the game could record your last ~100 moves so you can replay them upon death to see where you took the wrong action

Granted, you quickly get accustomed to the ctrl=positive, alt=negative thing. So I guess this really is just personal preference and I'm sure I will also get accustomed to it.
But then again the combination for item swapping doesn't quite make sense... shouldn't it be ctrl+alt?

As another suggestion about the problem with having to take the hand off the numpad: would it be possible to offer an option to make ctrl, alt and shift "sticky"? (so you press them once and they stay active until you press the next button)