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[Adraius]

...and it actually went pretty darn well!  I had remarkably smooth progress through Materials and most of the Factory.  I got my storage units up and running right at the start, found some nice explosive weapons right away, I was taking down patrols quickly and efficiently, my armor meant I wasn't even getting scratched, terminals were kind to me and I had threat levels under control, Programmers were taking the day off, and I was finding stairs unusually quickly.  It was great.  Unfortunately, I think my detour into Extension, however fun it may have been, may have cost me.  I broke out some AI buddies, and we tore up the place pretty good.  When I got out, I was in Research, and the patrols really ramped up, the Programmers made a late but strong showing, and there were no terminals to be found.  I had an epic explosion-fest outside a Garrison Access in which I was finally defeated.  GG.

Notes:

 - It sure felt like I was finding staircases quickly.  I looked up the stats - my last run that ended on -2 took 12,240 turns, this run took 9,003.  Then again, treads are faster now by about 20% if I'm remembering correctly.

 - Speaking of which, treads are now juuuuuust fast enough to avoid some patrols under the right circumstances.  They're not fast by any stretch, but they feel more mobile now.  I didn't know how exactly the changes to propulsion changed things, but I knew I liked the mobility, so I actually invested enough in propulsion slots to not be overweight this run. :0

 - More things sound the alarm now.  I got a jammer to shut them and all those pesky watchers up. =)

 - Guaranteed storage units in Materials, nice.  Kinda surprised you implemented that, btw, but I'm not complaining.  And with the changes to coverage, they last forever now.  I still had some of my original storage units from -10 when I died on -2.

 - Much of the credit for that, though, really goes to my armor.  I wasn't planning on using all that much armor at the start of the run, but I found some and threw it on.  Hot damn, it really made a difference!  Unlike in previous runs, where parts would fly off my 'bot whenever things got hairy, this time around that didn't happen.  I had what felt like record low parts churn all the way through the Factory.  I can see the changes to crits and the crit damage bonus in evidence here.  I wore as much armor as I could find the whole run, and I could really tell when I ran out - I started losing parts much, much faster!

 - Coverage is pretty different now, especially when it relates to hackware and other support utilities.  It took me a long time to find any hackware, but when I did it was a tasty Adv Hacking Suite, and that sucker served me well.  Behind my armor, it survived all the way to my final showdown, even though I couldn't take it off for combat.  I was wary of how that was going to work out, but my fears proved unfounded.  Low coverage also made my jammer stay operational long enough to feel worth it.  Hurrah again for armor.

 - What do you have to do to destroy a Garrison Access, by the way?  I fought my last stand next to one, and it ate ~6 Hellfire Missiles without seeming to care.  Do I need to target the 'G' part in particular?  Or when it starts blinking and its status says "Redeploying" is that all I'm after?

 - There seem to be more low-level weapons on some higher-tier enemies.  I was seeing Heavy Lasers even towards the end off some Grunts, and Hunters have Heavy Machine Guns now if memory serves.  Probably helps balance them having 3 weapons?

 - I think Extension gives you a chance to skip a level?  I had to leave my game and come back right around the time I entered Research (from Extension, which I had entered from the Factory), so my memory could be off, but I'm pretty sure I died on the first level of Research I saw, and according to the morgue file that level was -2.

[Decker]

Good run Adraius!

What do you have to do to destroy a Garrison Access, by the way?  I fought my last stand next to one, and it ate ~6 Hellfire Missiles without seeming to care.  Do I need to target the 'G' part in particular?  Or when it starts blinking and its status says "Redeploying" is that all I'm after?

They resist explosives. They're vulnerable to energy weapons by 25% though. So a plain nova cannon or an overloaded shot ought to do the trick. You just need to destroy any piece of it to shut it off.

[Kyzrati]

Hey Adraius, great to see a run from you to compare from the early days.

You can analyze machines/environmental objects now if you have a Structural Scanner, and learn what their weaknesses/strengths are, if any. Getting in a fight near a Garrison Access is very dangerous, more so if you think you can blast them with explosives

Treads are quicker now, for sure, now that the stacking slowdown was removed. Propulsion got better across the board a few releases ago.

Guaranteed Storage, along with the other boosts to it, really helped improve the overall enjoyment. Some people simply want to regularly play with a bigger inventory, and it's not very fair to easily or suddenly take that away, nor is it fun to make those players have to seek out (or build) their storage every single game. So yeah, lots of tweaks to Storage. Now that you mention it, maybe under the upcoming new fabrication system, guaranteed storage units aren't so necessary since you'll be able to build them without too much difficulty... Of course, we'll see if/how the system is potentially abused in other ways first

Glad the new hackware coverage worked out for you, despite your concerns. It's similarly nice to have things like Targeting Computers last nearly forever--or until you lose all your armor . Combat builds do certainly rely on their armor a lot now, though more propulsion slots can help with that, as can a lot of weapon slots (assuming you have lots of spares for either), since they provide better coverage than utilities.

Hunters have gone through several phases of modifications, yeah. Now they have somewhat worse weapons, but are still quite deadly because they have that third gun, yep. I kinda like where they are in terms of difficulty now. (Grunt loadouts haven't changed, though; it's just that later in the game top-tier Grunt variants can be leading intermediate variants.)

Extension doesn't allow you to skip, no. There's currently only one place in the game you can skip an entire depth. You'll see that the score sheet now includes even more stats than it did last year, and among those, at the end, it shows the route you took through the world. I see from your sheet that you did go through -3/Research, just pretty quickly (only 544 turns).

Were you avoiding the caves on purpose? Or did you just happen to always find regular Factory exits?

[Adraius]

Right now I always seek an expanded inventory, but I dunno, guaranteed storage units in a game as procedural as Cogmind strikes me as strange. =P I look forward to seeing how the fabrication changes impact storage unit availability.

I was taking every stairway I came across - I simply didn't encounter the Caves on the run.

[Adraius]

Okay, time for an after action report from run #2.

This run, after enjoying my slightly speedier treads, I decided to see what I could accomplish with a non-treading Cogmind that could pick its fights.  It felt so weird picking up legs instead of treads at the start of the game! =P Again, the game seemed to like me at the start of this run: terminals to hack, some armor lying around, found a storage unit cache on -9, and picked up a Mini Grenade Launcher that would last until it fired my final futile volley on sublevel 3.  Most importantly, I found an Imp. Sensor Array, which was soon followed by an Adv. Signal Interpreter!   Using it was a really eye-opening experience.  I got to see just how many patrols I would have blundered into as a treaded Cogmind as I quietly slipped around them.  There were a bunch of exhilarating close calls as I used my legged speed to slip into the next chamber juuuuust before a patrol entered the room, and even a couple short chases when they saw the tail end of me and I decided to run instead of fight, and about half the time I actually managed to slip away!  Things really hit their stride when I found an Adv. Sensor Array in the Factory.  It was a really, really different pace of game than I'm used to - a lot more lurking just out of sight for long periods to let a patrol slowly move past my location, and some really intense moments of using my newfound mobility and a little tactical wall-busting to slip past several patrols to reach my objective.

There was a bit of a learning curve regarding how to protect my scanner equipment from damage - my Adv. Senor Array and Adv. Signal Interpreter were literally invaluable.  The Adv. Signal Interpreter was small enough to be basically invulnerable when behind armor, but the Adv. Sensor Array wasn't, and I managed to get it a bit banged up.  It took awhile, but I managed to get it repaired.  Unfortunately, I lost my backup Imp. Sensor Array when I stuck it in to get it repaired too, and the repair station was disabled by what must have been a wildly stray shot from either me or the Programmer I was fighting. =/

I found an Imp. Transmission Jammer, Adv. Terrain Scanner, and Adv. Terrain Scan Processor in the mid-Factory, but I lacked the slots and power to run them.  I took them with me, and added them to by build as I gained slots.  There was a brief, glorious window in which I was running an Adv. Sensor Array, Adv. Terrain Scanner, and the Adv. enhancements for both of them.  Unfortunately, part of the reason I was able to fit all that was a symptom of a major problem I was encountering - a big lack of armor.  After the early Factory, I had no luck finding armor at all.  I considering trying to hack out the component inventory at a terminal, but they had also really dried up.  I got forced into a close-range slug-match with a squad of elite Grunts early on either -5 or -4, and they beat me up pretty badly.  It took me a loooong time to get through -5 and -4, and although I could dodge a lot of fights, the ones I did take hurt badly without any armor.  Propulsion was getting pretty tricky to handle.  I'd been using mostly legs with a couple short stints with wheels (fast, but hella fragile!), but increasingly I wasn't finding enough legs left over even after battles with Grunts to replace the legs I had lost, and I found myself hobbling around on my one "reserve wheel" from my stores post-battle to shoot some scavengers and fit myself out in wheels.  I forgot to swap out my Adv. Sensor Array one too many times, and it died, which marked the beginning of the end.  My Cogmind basically fell to pieces right as I found the exit to Research, and I exited while under fire from two Hunters, the Sentry guarding the exit, and a squadron of Swarmers.  I had run out of weapons and matter for ammo against the Hunters (I was aiming to use 50/50 kinetic and thermal, but I had seen a serious dearth of weapons lately and was down to just kinetics), and my remaining sensors got ripped to shreds as I made for the exit.  I was able to rebuild some once in Research, but couldn't find any sensors and (oddly enough) found only a bunch of treads for propulsion, and my half-baked combat-bot conversion succumbed quickly.

 - Advanced Sensor Arrays and Advanced Sensor Interpreters are my two new favorite items in Cogmind.  I can't wait until the Fabrication changes make fabbing your own easier!

 - Similarly, I can really see myself fabbing together some armor in the late factory in the future.

 - Hackware seems to be more rare than it used to be.  I only saw a couple pieces in the whole run, in the very late Factory.  I've yet to see any of whatever part now gives a boost to indirect hacking.

 - My bot really seemed to die when I kept getting utility slots... but didn't have the "correct" utilities to fill them.  The terrain scanner shenanigans was fun, but in retrospect probably not worth the two slots.  The transmission jammer was more worthwhile, but was also more vulnerable to enemy fire.  I really needed some armor to go in some of my utility slots instead, and secondarily, some hackware to locate and beeline for exits/goodies.  I actually had the hackware on sublevel 4, but I don't think I saw a single terminal between that point and when I died, so I never equipped it.

 - I haven't tried out any of the new trojan or brute force hacks yet.  Partially because a lot of the terminals I have found had nice hacks built in, and/or I needed to purge threat or find an exit at the time, but I really ought to try them.  I think I keep associating them with indirect hacks, which have that base -15% chance penalty.

 - Oh, and is it just me, or has the "pursuit" AI changed since early alpha?  I remember that bots used to follow you quite well even after losing line-of-sight, and using ECM to shorten that tracking period was crucial, but this run I was able to lose some Grunt packs simply by slipping their vision and going through a few doorways.  Or maybe it feels easier now because I could see them run off the wrong direction thanks to my scanners.

EDIT: you know, I really should have tried killing some of the late-game Watchers for a new sensor array.  I killed one early, saw them drop the basic scanner, and then promptly discarded the idea of getting items from them.  But I bet the late-game ones have the good kit.

I look forward to trying this sort of bot out again. =)

[Kyzrati]

Good story! Thanks for writing that up. I almost always run combat builds and "don't have room for" sensors and the like, but the couple times I end up with them I feel a heck of a lot safer. Yeah they take up potential armor slots, but then they're kinda like the equivalent of armor because you probably won't be getting into as many confrontations.

I'm worried that being able to fab whatever you want might imbalance the game, but we'll worry about that once Alpha 9 is out there. Maybe not.

Hacking and hackware were overhauled, so the latter is more rare because there are no longer six types, only two! (Thus there are fewer related items for placement.) Read the new descriptions on the hackware and you'll find the indirect hacking bonus was folded into standard hacking suites--all offensive effects are enhanced by a single type, and all defensive effects by the other.

Trojans and brute force don't have a -X%, no, and some are fairly likely to succeed, but it's generally still advised to have some hacking boost before using the better ones. Botnets can help there.

There haven't been any pursuit AI changes, no.

Right now I always seek an expanded inventory, but I dunno, guaranteed storage units in a game as procedural as Cogmind strikes me as strange. =P I look forward to seeing how the fabrication changes impact storage unit availability.

Well I don't have an confirmed changes on that yet, it was only your comment that had me thinking now that we'll have better Fabricators (and the Huge storage was removed, and those that you do get last longer), getting rid of guaranteeing storage could fit the game better in its current state. That feature was added back when it made more sense, and storage often became an issue, but those issues are probably either resolved or less significant now, and I'd be in favor of reintroducing the need to acquire storage through one of the other means.

[Shobalk]

I'd be in favor of reintroducing the need to acquire storage through one of the other means.

I wouldn't

[Kyzrati]

Ha, you and most everyone else

I've just added it to the list for consideration at a later date after the fabrication situation becomes clearer, so don't start hoarding them just yet!

[Adraius]

A question of mine for discussion:

In my last run, I didn't really feel like my Adv. Terrain Scanner and Adv. Terrain Scan Processor were the parts I needed on the build.  It was almost my first time using those parts, and unfortunately, my bot started falling about soon after I got them operational, so I don't consider the test conclusive by any means, but I'd be disinclined to try them again.  But I just took a look through the Strategies section of the forum and found this thread from back in January/February in which several people promote the idea of using terrain scanners on combat builds to find the exit.

How to people feel about that with the current changes?  Looking at the releases, it looks like that was just after the propulsion rework/buff, not before.  How exactly is the terrain scanner helpful - are you walking around as normal and hoping it specifically spots the stairs?  Or does it involve being stationary-ish in one area, letting it map, then moving on to the next?  Would you recommend it only for treaded combat bots or for <130 movement speed bots as well?

An additional thought for my post-mortem: I should have probably been killing an isolated Sentry or two for armor.  I didn't like getting into combat if at all avoidable once I initially ran out, and I didn't like the chance that I'd kill the armor before the Sentry and I'd come away with nothing, but I needed to bite the bullet and give it a try.

[Decker]

The following is my analysis. Kyzrati probably disagrees with much of it

I like the write-up of your experience. Indeed, item shortages are common. Armor, force fields, hackware, scanners+processors are rare. In some games you just won't find any items in a category. Theoretically, you can kill watchers/operators for sensors/hackware, but in practice it often doesn't work so well.

You can kill sentries for their armor, but it's not really worthwile. Their armor is crappy in the first place and you already battered it by destroying the sentry. If you do find some good armor, sure you can equip one or two pieces, but otherwise it's totally viable to rely on your propulsion, power and weapon slots for makeshift armor. By the late game your coverage is already good and armor won't protect your processors from fighters, which is the main risk factor. Some propulsion units have better integrity than most armor.

Essentially you just make do with what you found and hope for the best. For Research/Access, the best is still to hack the exit if you can pull it off (derelict logs can help, too). It's completely random. You might be lucky to find a low-level terminal and/or level access available but don't count on it.

Failing that, terrain scanners are your best bet. Since they map slowly, you can afford going on treads and wait until the full area has been revealed (I recommend waiting as you don't want to backtrack due to partial mapping). Since you map a large area, you should be able to find an exit in a reasonable amount of time. If you identify every processor prototype you come across, about 1 game in 2 you'll find the experimental terrain scanner, which maps really fast.

If neither hacking or terrain scanners are possible, then you can use sensors to avoid some trouble and spot the sentries that might be sitting on an exit.

If you're running blind, then you still kill everything in sight (even at alert level 5) so long as you have high storage, a large stack of good launchers and spare matter. Otherwise, you're officially in trouble. You might be lucky with a garrison or drone bays. Being fast helps at that point. Fight, flee, scout ahead!

[Kyzrati]

Terrain scanners can be a good way to find an exit, but yeah just one of many, whatever works depending on the parts you've found.

Lots of good advice from Decker there, though as expected I can't help but disagree on at least one bit

He likes to carry tons of spare parts, but also eschews armor in favor of other forms of non-armor protection, even though armor has significantly better coverage, and using it means less of a need for replacement parts. Armor is 2-4x more likely to protect other parts from damage compared to treads and legs (ignoring the special armors which also give damages resistances to all parts on top of that).

But yeah if you want to play with the massive inventory approach, Decker knows how to do it best

@Decker: Ever use a good Salvage Targeting Computer? (Or make sure you aren't using cannons when in search of salvage.) Because that will make it significantly more likely that you'll get good stuff from your victims. Thermal guns with salvage targeting is the most effective way to strip a target cleanly at range. Up close of course melee weapons do an okay job, too.

[Decker]

He likes to carry tons of spare parts, but also eschews armor in favor of other forms of non-armor protection, even though armor has significantly better coverage, and using it means less of a need for replacement parts. Armor is 2-4x more likely to protect other parts from damage compared to treads and legs (ignoring the special armors which also give damages resistances to all parts on top of that).

I agree with all of this. My problem with armor is that I can't find replacement easily enough when I fight a lot (clearing ARC after ARC), so I treat it as a nice-to-have. If your combat build depends on armor, you'll have a problem in a lot of situations. Also: if you don't have anything fragile, then you don't really care about the increased churn in other parts. You'll just have to replace propulsion, weapons, power sources and heat sinks more often, which is all right, since that stuff litters the battle field and it got competitive integrity (propulsion and kinetic guns especially). Of course it helps to have balanced slot categories (weapon-heavy builds beware).

@Decker: Ever use a good Salvage Targeting Computer? (Or make sure you aren't using cannons when in search of salvage.) Because that will make it significantly more likely that you'll get good stuff from your victims. Thermal guns with salvage targeting is the most effective way to strip a target cleanly at range. Up close of course melee weapons do an okay job, too.

Huh. I never thought of that. I did use thermal/kinetic weapons with +salvage when I could. I'll try with the salvage computers. It might be useful in combat to restock, too. It probably beats equipping a ton of heat sinks when I don't have anything else handy.

However, even when I do have a good stripping loadout, I still find it hard to retrieve hackware/sensors in a pinch. Operators are sometimes scarce and often do not drop the type of hackware I'm looking for (high-level hacking suites, not -detection chance or corruption purge). Watchers tend to have more reliable drops, but when you're slow, they often take a kite and you don't have time to chase them when you need sensors to cope with an alert-level crisis (or Access).

[Kyzrati]

Operators and Watchers can be tough to properly strip, true, especially if you're only after one specific part.

Overall the situation could change with fabrication, which was intended to fill that potential gap. We shall see!

[Adraius]

Run #3.  It's still in progress, but I had to take a couple day's break between session one and session two, so it's faded a bit and I want to write down what I can ASAP. (EDIT: I've now finished the run and completed this post) Build is still a leg-based sneaky-combat hybrid looking to use Sensor Arrays and Signal Interpreters.  I wasn't immediately blessed with parts, but I eventually found the key bits (sensors, storage, and a couple sweet Imp. Grenade Launchers!), and pressed into the mid-Factory feeling pretty swell.

I had one particular moment that stood out, hiding from a good-sized Grunt patrol in a tiny side room almost completely filled by four nuclear reactors.  The patrol was passing by the outside, so I hid to let them go by.  Uh oh... they want to check the room.  I press myself against the backside of a thrumming nuclear reactor.  Okay, they've peeked, they should go now.  Or... not.  Okay, they're coming closer.  I scrunch myself further to one side to avoid being spotted.  Maybe they'll leave now?  Nope, now they're camping out amongst the reactors, me hiding a scant few tiles away.  Leave, please??  It took awhile, but miraculously, they didn't ever come all the way to the back, and I escaped notice. =D

Lady luck came through for me when I came across a pile of Long-Range Sensor Arrays!  I grabbed one to equip immediately, and a spare as well, although I intended to swap out the active one for another heat sink or armor plate whenever combat seems imminent. 

Around -5 I was encountering a bit more resistance, came across an entrance to Extension, and decided to lose a little heat.  It was only my second visit, so I didn't fully understand the layout.  I took the main throughway all the way until I saw a Behemoth on my sensors.  I knew that meant an exit, but I still only had two guns!  Maybe there would be other exits the other way.  I saw a room with disabled bots and guards watching over them, and from my sensors saw lots of similar guards ahead.  I took out one room's worth of guards to push further in, but after traveling a bit further decided I should just go back around, bite the bullet, and take out the Behemoths.  It cost me some, but I made it through and unlocked the door on the first try to access the stairs.  I still have no idea how to get out of there if I can't unlock that door lol.

The detour didn't seem to help me as much as I hoped.  Once back in the Factory I started running into frequent Hunter teams, and got an ARC or two sent after me.  I don't really understand how Hunters and ARCs work.  Do they know your position like Programmers do?  Or a general location?  Unlike a lot of other threats I had zero success dodging them, and I resigned myself to fighting them.  I made it to -4, but once there I got into several fights that saw me fully move from "replacing maybe 1 or 2 parts from my reserves after battle" to "rebuild half my bot with parts from the battlefield."  I had used up both my Imp. Grenade Launchers and lost my 1st sensor array, and I was worried the run would be coming to an end soon due to the escalating enemy response.  That's where I left off a few days ago.

I jumped back into the game, fortune swung my way - a chute trap!  I double-checked my gear and took the plunge into the Waste.  Here, my sensor array and legged movement speed of 120 were invaluable - I navigated the Waste without ever even being spotted by the Crushers!  Once back in the Factory, things were much better.  I found some armor for the first time since I left Extension, and was able to round out my weapons loadout, incorporating some really nasty cannons.

In research, I started in an odd, almost completely self-contained area that had me retracing a lot of ground to find a path to the rest of the map - I had found a branch exit, but it was locked.  Unfortunately, I started making some mistakes.  I'm operating on two power units and trying to run a couple heat sinks, a couple targeting computers, a shield generator, and my scanner gear.  I kept forgetting to turn my heat sinks and targeting computers on for combat, which caused some self-inflicted injury and forced me to turn off my shield at some inopportune moments.  Then, when backtracking, I got complacent near a Behemoth I had identified earlier and moved one tile into its vision range.  I paid dearly for that when it one-shot my long-range scanner. >.< With that gone, I decided to refocus my efforts on being a combat bot.  Fortunately, I had a large store of armor from the end of the Factory and my first couple minutes in Research, and I had found a good shield generator and several transmission jammers.  I was able to bulldoze my way to the exit, but took me ~2000 turns, and I'm sure my alert level was getting very high.  Still, I entered -2 confident: for the first time, the war of attrition seemed to have stabilized in my favor: even without armor, I was winning battles and keeping my bot together, or together enough to be able to live off the remains of my enemies.

Central to my build were three Adv. Targeting Computers, an Exp. Core Analyzer, and an Imp. Armor Analyzer - this was my first time running with targeting computers since I came back to the game, and they'd been nerfed from 12% (IIRC) to 8%, but they seemed as effective as ever to me!  Moreover, thanks to their extremely low coverage they were mostly safe from harm.  On -2, if I wasn't at alert level 5 already, I certainly reached it.  The battles got crazy: multiple ARCs arriving at once, sometimes joined by a Grunt squad or Hunter team.  I was taking them all on, and even winning, but I made a fatal mistake: I assumed the massive flow of ARCs was stemming from an exit staircase.  I fought an agonizing series of over a dozen battles in close proximity to make my way to the source, only to be finally crushed by the realization it was a Garrison, not an exit.  Although I was winning battles fairly effectively and keeping my core only 5-7% exposed, I was already down to about half core HP.  I killed the Garrison and pushed forward, and another direction showed promise, but that turned out to be a Garrison as well, which I also destroyed.  -2 had been kind to me in the launchers department - at some point or another I used two Neutron Missile Launchers, two Adv. Micro-Nuke Launchers, and a Point-Singularity Launcher.

I was able to keep my build fully functional throughout the run and made an absolute mess of the complex's research levels, but eventually I succumbed to core damage attrition.  I was so sure I was going to make it to Access. =(

Notes:

 - Targeting computers are still the shit, they make a world of difference against, well, anything, but especially Hunters and Programmers.

 - I need to learn how Hunter and ARC tracking works.  Knowing how/if I can avoid these guys is real important.

 - Until now I didn't understand the policy of killing Garrisons.  I mean, they're gonna spawn somewhere, right?  May as well let them spawn in an area I've already moved through.  Ugh - I can't imagine having to deal with a procession of ARCs from a Garrison I left to my rear.  That would suck.

 - Okay, I've done three solid runs now, so I feel confident commenting on this - Programmer spawns are much less frequent now, correct?  Even on alert level 5 they felt - at most - half as common as they used to be on alert level 3, the highest alert level I reached on my winning run way back when, when I was merrily kill-botting around -1 for a good long while, albeit after being pummeled into robo-dust and entering the floor naked. (EDIT: in that run I spent 4066 turns in Access!) But yeah, many more Hunters and ARCs now compared to Programmers, and I approve of the change.

 - Next time if in a similar situation, I might try some Garrison diving.  I'm 98% sure I'd lost the little hackware I had by the time I found the Garrison, but if I rolled lucky I might have been able to get in. (never tried it before, don't know my exact chances) It's not like the facility AI could possibly get more angry with me, and weakening their response may have helped considerably.

 - I never did let one of those Imps hit me with its Segregator - I was a little curious, but I was pretty sure I didn't want that thing touching me even once =P

 - Hey, new personal best score!  Has the scoring system been adjusted, by any chance?  Scores seem to be able to get higher now than the once did. (EDIT: I got 4k more score  than my winning run in less than 2/3s as many turns, while evolving one less time and not getting the 2k bonus from winning)

[Decker]

I need to learn how Hunter and ARC tracking works.  Knowing how/if I can avoid these guys is real important.

Hunters don't know where you are if they didn't see you yet. However they might release little drones to spot you once they lost track of you (after seeing you).

There are two kinds of ARCs. The patrolling ones don't know where you are. The ones dispatched by the alert level will track you everywhere until they see you.

(Unrelated note) It would be nice to reduce the pause delay to something shorter (from 100 to 50 maybe). Currently there's no way to safely wait for an ARC (speed 80 IIRC) to turn a corner to one-shot it with EM. It might move twice before you do.

Programmer spawns are much less frequent now, correct?

They spawn less frequently when you destroy garrisons. Every time you destroy a garrison, they spawn 25% less frequently. If I understand correctly, that means that destroying two garrisons should reduce the spawn rate by 0.75*0.75. Correct?

I was able to keep my build fully functional throughout the run and made an absolute mess of the complex's research levels, but eventually I succumbed to core damage attrition.

You died on your feet. That's impressive. There's a world of difference between dying naked and dying just because you can't repair that core.

I never did let one of those Imps hit me with its Segregator.

They get me most of the time. You were spoiled with your utility loadout though. If I find one advanced targeting computer I consider myself lucky.

[Adraius]

You were spoiled with your utility loadout though. If I find one advanced targeting computer I consider myself lucky.

For sure. =) I hadn't used them 'til now because I hadn't come across any Adv. ones on my previous runs.  This time I found a whole stockpile of them.  Mmmmm.

It would be nice to reduce the pause delay to something shorter (from 100 to 50 maybe). Currently there's no way to safely wait for an ARC (speed 80 IIRC) to turn a corner to one-shot it with EM. It might move twice before you do.

I meant to put a note in my post regarding ARC speed, but I forgot.  Those guys move faster than I anticipated when I first started playing again.  I assume they're on treads? (I always forget to look, and I haven't had any success trying to kill one) What's up with they're speed?  I don't know if their speed is 80, but I'm pretty sure it's <120.

Not-EDIT: according to the wiki, they use wheels and have a speed of 95, but that is likely pre-propulsion rebalance.  Wheels got a speed buff in the propulsion rebalance, right?  Maybe that's why they're so fast now.

Another thing: has anyone actually had success trying to one-shot ARCs before they dump units on your face?  What's the level of firepower needed for that?  I see from the wiki they're a little weak to EM and strong against Kinetic... that explains some of my troubles.  I hate Programmers and try to keep my loadout 50/50 Thermal and Kinetic where possible.  How well do powerful launchers fare against them?

Hunters don't know where you are if they didn't see you yet. However they might release little drones to spot you once they lost track of you (after seeing you).

Do Hunters really not have any sort of tracking?  I'm pretty sure they've shot me through walls before they've even seen me, sometimes, though I could be wrong.  At any rate, they appear to have a built-in sensor array and sensor interpreter or something, on account of their wall-penetrating shenanigans. (in addition to the whole "I don't show up on sensors" thing - evil little assholes) Oh, and possibly a built-in Visual Processing Unit, because they can see farther than any other robot, and I really hope their scanner doesn't extend that far!

So yeah, I have no idea what's up with Hunters, but they're painful.

[Adraius]

Run #4. (in progress) I decided it's time for me to try an all-up fast-stealth build!  It's been ages since I tried this and none of my attempts went well, but here goes.

Based on tips from the forums I read way back when, I had been on going with my more standard legs, sensors, and guns until the early Factory or so.  But then literally the first things to accost me were a bunch of Swarmers, and they dropped a whole bunch of intact Flight Units.  What the hell, let's do this!  Then I ran into even more Swarmers, killed them at a doorway too, and I was swimming in Flight Units.

Items continued being ridiculously kind.  I found an Adv. Sensor Array very quickly, followed by an Imp. ECM Suite.  And exits were being easy to find, too.  On -8 I had a bad run of triggering a patrol, running, then running into more and more patrols.  I briefly tried to fight a group of Swarmers I randomly found in a side room before the rest caught up to me, but I quickly realized it wasn't going to work out and I had to run while under fire.  The one piece my build was missing: an AoE weapon - the downside of finding the exits so quickly, I guess.  Speaking of which, that's how I got away from the Swarmers: running away from them led me right to an exit. =D And on -7, I found an exit incredibly close to my starting position - so close I hadn't yet seen a single combat robot or scout. 0.o I decided to poke into the surrounding rooms with the help of my (banged-up) Sensor Array to stay safe, and found a Lrn. Sensor Array!!  After that, I was sure the exit must lead to somewhere vile and dangerous, this felt too lucky, but nope, it took me to -6.  At this point, a good third of my slots were empty for lack of any items to put in them. 0.o Right off the bat, though, I find a Drone Bay.  Then I find some Energy Wells and an Imp. Force Field - if only they weren't so heavy. =(

Shit, even more Swarmers.  What's up with all the Swarmers!?  Time to run.  I make it a little ways, but then, stasis trap!!  I'm not used to dealing with these.  I heard that the break faster the more overweight you are?  I was trapped for another 18 turns or so, with the Swarmers hot on my tail... lets try it.  I turned off some propulsion... it made the field strength go down by one extra, but cost me 4-5 times as much time!  I kept trying to break free, but the Swarmers arrived and killed my remaining power source.  I get out, but not before losing my guns and most of my flight units.  All the nearby doors are one-entrance rooms... make that ALL my attached flight units gone.  Good thing I have a couple spares.  And the Swarmers are actually shooting each other!  One is dead, and two others have lost their weapons.  If I could just find a gun, I could kill or disable the last couple.  I run into another room... another solo Swarmer - but there''s also an Imp. Datajack.  I've never really used those... but here goes nothing.  Shit, those need too much power.  I run again, and finally seem to lose them.  Time to try and rebuild.

A "Lgt." Angular Momentum Engine is still too heavy for my two Flight Units.  Oh well. =P  I see a Sentry ahead, and I don't know if the Swarmers have fully lost me yet.  I decide to check the walls of a nearby room for a hidden door to go around - and actually find one!  I run into ANOTHER swarm of Swarmers, but my speed saves me from being spotted.  Then I find an exit, but there's a Sentry on it!  Disable flight units and go to RAMMING SPEED!  Annnnnd now I'm in Extension.  Great.  There are Behemoths guarding the only exit I know of in here.  Maybe I can steal some parts from Transporters carrying stuff through the main tunnel?

Annnnnd that's where I am now.  Any help, guys? xD This run has been absolutely hilarious and I've love to keep it going.  Is past the Behemoths the only way out?  I've attached a screenshot of my current status.

[Sherlockkat]

Haha. Fly along the eastern corridor. There is an exit right below the first behemoth in the extension junction. It is behind a sealed door with a terminal nearby. The hack that opens the door is fairly easy to pull off. You will still take some fire from the behemoths and sentries. But, not as much as you would if you try to just fly past the lot to the other exit in east. Good luck.

[Adraius]

Haha. Fly along the eastern corridor. There is an exit right below the first behemoth in the extension junction. It is behind a sealed door with a terminal nearby. The hack that opens the door is fairly easy to pull off. You will still take some fire from the behemoths and sentries. But, not as much as you would if you try to just fly past the lot to the other exit in east. Good luck.

Alright, thanks.  That's the only exit I've ever used from Extension, but I usually see it just past the Behemoths.  IIRC the unlock chance is 30%, but you usually get a few tries.  I think I'm gonna try and put a combat rig together to take them out if I can get lucky with items from Transporters - right now I'm crazy fragile.

EDIT2: Alright, I've killed a bunch of bots in the tunnel and put together a combat loadout.  The plan is to use my Lrn. Sensor Array to spot the Behemoth from afar, then use the Mining Laser to try to tunnel to the stairs.  EDIT2: I also have a Imp. Terrain Scanner not in the pic.  If that doesn't work, I'll have to try my luck in combat without heat sinks, or just run past on legs to the terminal.  Pic attached.

EDIT: Update!!  Things all went to shit - long story short, I managed to overheat myself before even attempting the breakout, my transmission jammer failed, and I got an ARC sent after me.  But it disgorged only Swarmers!  I killed them all and took their VTOL Modules.  Some Hunters joined the party and I made an absolute mess of dropping my items while getting light enough to fly, but I managed to get most of what I wanted, unlocked the exit door on my final hacking attempt, and escaped.  But things didn't go well on the next floor.  I was still pretty hodge-podge, and got into a bad situation of triggering a whole ton of enemies, running, triggering even more, etc.  I lost all my flight units and most of my utilities, though I found a Smartbomb Launcher in a side room - I just didn't think even that would be able to handle my tail of enemies very well.  In desperation, I unlocked a Garrison Access and dove in! =D I quickly got caught by a Stasis Trap, and some more Swarmers ambushed me.  Sensing opportunity, I used my thermal cannon instead of my launcher to kill them.  Yay, more VTOL Modules!  There were Hunters, Grunts, and an ARC towards the center of the Garrison, but I was able to abuse corners horribly with my Smartbomb Launcher and kill them all.  The first exit I made my way to locked me out, necessitating some serious backtracking and more damage, but I was able to escape!

[Kyzrati]

- Hey, new personal best score!  Has the scoring system been adjusted, by any chance?  Scores seem to be able to get higher now than the once did. (EDIT: I got 4k more score  than my winning run in less than 2/3s as many turns, while evolving one less time and not getting the 2k bonus from winning)

Congratulations . There are some ways to get bonus points now, which you can see listed towards the beginning of the score sheet, but in general the scoring system wasn't changed, no. You just caused a lot of mayhem is all

(Unrelated note) It would be nice to reduce the pause delay to something shorter (from 100 to 50 maybe). Currently there's no way to safely wait for an ARC (speed 80 IIRC) to turn a corner to one-shot it with EM. It might move twice before you do.

That's an interesting idea, to just shorten the wait time to half a turn. Or maybe reduce it even further to a quarter turn, but require a command modifier (Shift-KP5, for example) to do a partial-turn wait instead of a full turn. This would also likely require showing the current turn number as a decimal value...

In general I don't want it to become a game where you're trying to micromanage subturn times too frequently for optimal play, though.

They spawn less frequently when you destroy garrisons. Every time you destroy a garrison, they spawn 25% less frequently. If I understand correctly, that means that destroying two garrisons should reduce the spawn rate by 0.75*0.75. Correct?

While it does stack, it's not a percentage change, just a flat increase in the delay. So technically that results in diminishing returns, a 30% increase for the first, 23% increase for the second, etc.

They get me most of the time. You were spoiled with your utility loadout though. If I find one advanced targeting computer I consider myself lucky.

I think you have a problem with salvage due to what you're using against your targets. Fighting Hunters can be such an easy way to get targeting computers that I always have as many as I want.

I meant to put a note in my post regarding ARC speed, but I forgot.  Those guys move faster than I anticipated when I first started playing again.  I assume they're on treads? (I always forget to look, and I haven't had any success trying to kill one) What's up with they're speed?  I don't know if their speed is 80, but I'm pretty sure it's <120.

Not-EDIT: according to the wiki, they use wheels and have a speed of 95, but that is likely pre-propulsion rebalance.  Wheels got a speed buff in the propulsion rebalance, right?  Maybe that's why they're so fast now.

Yep, wheels. They were always intended to be fast (since the idea is that they can also deliver legged and tracked robots to a target more quickly than along).

Their speed only increased by 4% from the propulsion rebalance.

Another thing: has anyone actually had success trying to one-shot ARCs before they dump units on your face?

*raises hand* But yeah, it's hard. I mentioned doing that in my last seed run report, towards the end of the game with nice targeting gear, core analyzers, and kinetic weapons--basically critical strikes on their core are your best bet from my experience.

Oh, and possibly a built-in Visual Processing Unit, because they can see farther than any other robot, and I really hope their scanner doesn't extend that far!

Nah, Hunters only have a sight range equal to your own unmodified range. They can shoot through walls though, yup. They're aggressive like that, but you can sometimes use it against them.

I heard that the break faster the more overweight you are?  I was trapped for another 18 turns or so, with the Swarmers hot on my tail... lets try it.

Oops, you remembered the opposite . You want to be less overweight--the more "surplus" propulsion you have the more force you can muster and the faster you'll escape. So technically in a hurry you'd need to do things like drop parts, stash stuff in inventory, equip any extra support-boosting utilities, overload any flight units that support it, etc. (Or if you have a Stasis Canceller you'd have less to worry about!) (Or you could shoot yourself with a launcher and blast the trap out of the ground )

Annnnnd that's where I am now.  Any help, guys? xD This run has been absolutely hilarious and I've love to keep it going.  Is past the Behemoths the only way out?  I've attached a screenshot of my current status.

Wow, nice comeback build. Currently underpowered for a combat run, though, with only two weapon slots. Did you take the first Extension detour to build yourself up? Where'd you get all that stuff?

[zxc]

Nice runs and posts all around. One thing I want to suggest specifically:

That's an interesting idea, to just shorten the wait time to half a turn. Or maybe reduce it even further to a quarter turn, but require a command modifier (Shift-KP5, for example) to do a partial-turn wait instead of a full turn. This would also likely require showing the current turn number as a decimal value...

I'd like it if you paused for 1 full regular turn unless something 'happened'  (like an enemy coming into view) before that full turn has passed. So if the time is 0, you wait a full turn to 1, then an arc shows up on 1.2, the second wait stops at 1.2. No roguelike has this afaik but I think it would be immensely useful.

[Kyzrati]

I'd like it if you paused for 1 full regular turn unless something 'happened'  (like an enemy coming into view) before that full turn has passed. So if the time is 0, you wait a full turn to 1, then an arc shows up on 1.2, the second wait stops at 1.2. No roguelike has this afaik but I think it would be immensely useful.

Ah yeah, we talked about that before as "tactical overwatch." It's been on the list for a long time, just pretty far down and I haven't gotten to it. Thanks for bringing it up--I've merged my notes and moved it up.

The main difficulty here is the amount of internal processing required to handle this feature. I'm not sure it's feasible yet.

[Adraius]

Annnnnd that's where I am now.  Any help, guys? xD This run has been absolutely hilarious and I've love to keep it going.  Is past the Behemoths the only way out?  I've attached a screenshot of my current status.

Wow, nice comeback build. Currently underpowered for a combat run, though, with only two weapon slots. Did you take the first Extension detour to build yourself up? Where'd you get all that stuff?

All from Transporters carrying stuff back and forth, plus a couple other miscellaneous bots. =D I spent a looooong time (EDIT: ~800 turns) just camping there and killing passerby.  I had a transmission jammer to stop the Watchers or anyone else from calling for help. MUHAHAHA

---

So, my hands are shaking and I can't think straight as I write this, but that run just ended.  I made it all the way through the remainder of the Factory, and Research, by running around, and hacking Terminals where I could.  My bot was constantly in shambles, no backup flight units, usually 1-2 power instead of the 4 slots I had, pulsing equipment on and off, no scanners, but it was working.  It was crazy.  I just constantly had just enough to keep going.

I made it all the way to Access.  I pissed off a couple Hunters and Grunts, and before I had explored hardly any of the floor, there it was: the Behemoths guarding the exit!  I had enemies behind me, but nearly all my core, a single cannon, and I knew the Behemoths had a lot of firepower.  I figured they could blow my way in if I couldn't.  Well, they obliterated my cannon, but did help me dig in... but oh, oh, so slowly compared to how fast they were killing me.  They blew through the first two layers so fast it convinced me to stay around.  I was double to just a couple hundred core HP when I made it in.  But the access shell!  I started going around to the Terminal I saw on the other side... and then the Hunters came in, causing the shell to retract, and they volleyed me down to 12 HP.  I took a few more steps towards the core, and died perhaps 4 steps from escape. =(

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

That was the most insane run ever.

You have tons of core HP by the time you reach Access.  That was so stupid of me to be afraid of just a handful of pursuers that I had managed to overcome all game.  I should have ran, gotten some more cannons in inventory, and came back.  Or gone around to the terminal.  But I made a choice, committed... and died for it.  Man...

EDIT: score sheet.  Look at those absurd turns-on-floor numbers.  The excpetion, sublevel 6, is where I visited Extension and spent around 800 turns killing passing bots in the tunnel for parts. =P

Code: [Select]

Cogmind - Alpha 8

Name: Adraius

---[ CORE DESTROYED ]---

 Performance
-------------
Evolutions (9)             4500
Robots Destroyed (68)      340
Value Destroyed (1754)     1754
Prototype IDs (6)          120
Alien Tech Identified (0)  0
Bonus (200)                200
              TOTAL SCORE: 6914

 Cogmind
---------
Core Integrity             0/1600
Matter                     289/300
Energy                     50/50
System Corruption          7%
Temperature                Cool (0)
Location                   -1/Access

 Parts
-------
Power (4)
Propulsion (5)
Utility (14)
  Spectral Analyzer
Weapon (2)

 Inventory
-----------
Experimental Power Amplifier

 Peak State
------------
Power
  Improved Ion Engine
  Neutrino Core
Propulsion
  VTOL Module
  VTOL Module
  Nuclear Pulse Array
Utility
  Insulated Heavy Armor
  Hacking Suite
  Experimental Power Amplifier
  Spectral Analyzer
  System Shield
  Reaction Control System
  Reaction Control System
  Reaction Control System
  Reaction Control System
  Advanced Powered Armor
  Advanced Powered Armor
Weapon
  Compact HERF Cannon
[Rating: 110]

 Favorites
-----------
Power                      Improved Ion Engine
  Engine                   Improved Ion Engine
  Power Core               Light Nuclear Core
  Reactor                  Light Anti-Matter Reactor
Propulsion                 VTOL Module
  Treads                   Medium Treads
  Wheel                    Compact Wheel
  Leg                      Flexi-carbon Leg
  Hover Unit               Anti-Grav Array
  Flight Unit              VTOL Module
Utility                    Advanced Weight Redist. System
  Device                   Advanced Weight Redist. System
  Storage                  Medium Storage Unit
  Processor                Spectral Analyzer
  Hackware                 System Shield
  Protection               Insulated Heavy Armor
Weapon                     High-powered Shotgun
  Energy Gun               Wave Gun
  Energy Cannon            Compact HERF Cannon
  Ballistic Gun            High-powered Shotgun
  Launcher                 Smartbomb Launcher
  Special Weapon           Mining Laser
  Special Melee Weapon     Improved Datajack

 Stats
-------
Bonus Breakdown            200
  Entered Garrisons        200
Classes Destroyed          10
  Worker                   9
  Builder                  5
  Tunneler                 3
  Hauler                   6
  Recycler                 11
  Mechanic                 2
  Watcher                  2
  Swarmer                  27
  Grunt                    1
  Hunter                   2
NPCs Destroyed             0
Best Kill Streak           9
  Combat Bots Only         7
Matter Collected           2097
  Salvage Created          2679
Parts Attached             167
  Power                    24
  Propulsion               45
  Utility                  67
  Weapon                   31
Parts Lost                 79
  Power                    16
  Propulsion               27
  Utility                  29
  Weapon                   7
Average Slot Usage (%)     64
  Naked Turns              3
Spaces Moved               4435
  Fastest Speed (%)        400
  Average Speed (%)        266
  Slowest Speed (%)        40
  Overloaded Moves         0
  Propulsion Burnouts      0
  Targets Rammed           4
  Cave-ins Triggered       1
  Teleports                0
Heaviest Build             70
  Greatest Overweight (x)  10
  Average Overweight (x)   0
Largest Inventory          14
  Most Items Carried       14
  Average Items Carried    5
Core Damage Taken          3706
Average Core Remaining (%) 76
  Depth 10 Exit            88
  Depth 9 Exit             89
  Depth 8 Exit             94
  Depth 7 Exit             100
  Depth 6 Exit             52
  Depth 5 Exit             54
  Depth 4 Exit             55
  Depth 3 Exit             100
  Depth 2 Exit             56
Volleys Fired              210
  Largest                  2
  Hottest                  125
Shots Fired                241
  Gun                      181
  Cannon                   47
  Launcher                 11
  Special                  2
  Kinetic                  129
  Thermal                  62
  Explosive                11
  Electromagnetic          39
Shots Hit Robots           157
  Core Hits                121
Overload Shots             0
  Energy Bleed             0
  Heat Surge               0
  Short Circuit            0
  Meltdown                 0
Melee Attacks              1
  Impact                   0
  Slashing                 0
  Piercing                 0
Damage Inflicted           7046
  Projectiles              3225
  Explosions               3808
  Melee                    0
  Ramming                  13
  Kinetic                  1697
  Thermal                  1518
  Explosive                3349
  Electromagnetic          469
  Impact                   0
  Slashing                 0
  Piercing                 0
Self-Inflicted Damage      386
  Shots                    7
  Rammed                   4
Highest Temperature        514
  Average Temperature      112
  Shutdowns                6
  Energy Bleed             2
  Interference             6
  Matter Decay             0
  Short Circuit            2
  Damage (minor)           1
  Damage (major)           0
  Damage (core)            0
Highest Corruption         7
  Average Corruption       2
  Message Errors           3
  Parts Rejected           0
  Data loss (map)          2
  Data loss (database)     0
  Misfires                 0
  Misdirections            1
  Targeting Errors         0
  Weapon Failures          0
  Depth 5 End              1
  Depth 4 End              1
  Depth 2 End              3
Haulers Intercepted        6
Robots Corrupted           2
Robots Melted              0
Power Chain Reactions      0
Tactical Retreats          25
Communications Jammed      182
Parts Field Recycled       0
  Retrieved Matter         0
Parts Merge Repaired       0
Drone Launches             4
  Drone Recoveries         0
Derelicts Assembled        0
Traps Triggered            0
  Indirectly               0
Trap Hack Attempts         0
  Triggered                0
  Disarmed                 0
  Reprogrammed             0
  Reused                   0
Data Cores Recovered       0
  Used                     0
Machines Hacked            26
  Terminals                23
  Fabricators              0
  Repair Stations          0
  Recycling Units          2
  Scanalyzers              0
  Garrison Access          1
Total Hacks                72
  Successful               13
  Failed                   59
  Catastrophic             27
  Database Lockouts        0
  Manual                   42
  Unauthorized             0
  Terminals                66
  Fabricators              0
  Repair Stations          0
  Recycling Units          5
  Scanalyzers              0
  Garrison Access          1
Terminal Hacks             11
  Record                   0
  Part Schematic           0
  Robot Schematic          0
  Robot Analysis           0
  Prototype ID Bank        0
  Open Door                1
  Level Access Points      2
  Branch Access Points     2
  Emergency Access Points  0
  Machine Index            0
  Terminal Index           0
  Fabricator Index         0
  Repair Station Index     0
  Recycling Unit Index     0
  Scanalyzer Index         0
  Garrison Index           0
  Alert Level              1
  Unreport Threat          3
  Locate Traps             1
  Disarm Traps             0
  Reprogram Traps          0
  Dispatch Records         0
  Maintenance Status       0
  Security Status          0
  Surveillance Status      0
  Patrol Status            0
  Transport Status         0
  Investigation Status     0
  Extermination Status     0
  Reinforcement Status     0
  Assault Status           0
  Garrison Status          0
  Intercept Status         0
  Recall Investigation     0
  Recall Extermination     0
  Recall Reinforcements    0
  Recall Assault           0
  Hauler Manifests         0
  Registered Components    1
  Registered Prototypes    0
  Zone Layout              0
  Sector Layout            0
  Machine Controls         0
Hacking Detections         25
  Full Trace Events        19
  Feedback Events          1
  Feedback Corruption      1
  Feedback Part Disabled   0
  Feedback Blocked         0
Trojans Installed          0
  Terminals                0
  Fabricators              0
  Repair Stations          0
  Recycling Units          0
  Scanalyzers              0
  Garrison Access          0
Fabricators Overloaded     0
Garrisons Disabled         1
Garrisons Compromised      0
Robot Schematics Acquired  0
  Robots Built             0
  Total Robot Build Rating 0
  Robot Fabrication Matter 0
  Robot Fabrication Time   0
Part Schematics Acquired   0
  Parts Built              0
  Total Part Build Rating  0
  Part Fabrication Matter  0
  Part Fabrication Time    0
Parts Repaired             0
  Part Repair Time         0
Parts Recycled             0
  Recycled Matter          0
  Retrieved Matter         0
  Retrieved Components     0
Parts Scanalyzed           0
  Part Schematics Acquired 0
  Parts Damaged            0
Robot Analysis Total       0
Robots Rewired             0
Robots Hacked              0
  Non-combat               0
  Combat                   0
  Parse                    0
  Link                     0
  Rebooted                 0
  Overloaded               0
  Assimilated              0
  Manual                   0
  Secondary                0
Robot Hack Failures        0
Allies Hacked              0
Hacks Repelled             0
Total Allies               4
  Largest Group            2
  Highest-Rated Group      10
  Highest-Rated Ally       5
Total Orders               4
  STAY                     0
  GOTO                     0
  ROAM                     0
  FOLLOW                   0
  GUARD                    0
  AID                      0
  BUILD                    0
  TUNNEL                   0
  DROP                     0
  PICKUP                   0
  COLLECT                  0
  EXPLORE                  4
  RETURN                   0
Terraforming Orders        0
  Walls Built              0
  Walls Tunneled           0
Ally Attacks               0
  Total Damage             0
  Kills                    0
Allies Corrupted           0
Allies Melted              0
Peak Influence             604
  Average Influence        77
  Final Influence          0
Maximum Alert Level        2
  Low Security (%)         90
  Level 1                  4
  Level 2                  4
  Level 3                  0
  Level 4                  0
  Level 5                  0
Squads Dispatched          34
  Investigation            19
  Extermination            2
  Reinforcement            11
  Assault                  1
  Garrison                 1
  Intercept                0
Derelict Logs Recovered    0
Exploration Rate (%)       17
  Regions Visited          14
  Pre-discovered Areas     0
Garrisons Visited          1
  Relays Disabled          0
  Generators Disabled      0
Network Hubs Disabled      0
Actions Taken              5492
Turns Passed               3372
  Depth 11                 93
  Depth 10                 189
  Depth 9                  137
  Depth 8                  49
  Depth 7                  27
  Depth 6                  1079
  Depth 5                  624
  Depth 4                  293
  Depth 3                  406
  Depth 2                  259
  Depth 1                  216
  Scrapyard                93
  Materials                375
  Factory                  925
  Research                 665
  Access                   216
  Garrison                 186
  Extension                912

 Prototype IDs
---------------
Experimental Q-Thruster
Improved Matter Compressor
Spectral Analyzer
Experimental Power Amplifier
Experimental Core Analyzer
Advanced Particle Charger

 Alien Tech Recovered
----------------------
None

 Route
-------
-11/Scrapyard
-10/Materials
-9/Materials
-8/Materials
-7/Factory
-6/Factory
-6/Extension
-5/Factory
-5/Garrison
-5/Factory
-4/Factory
-3/Research
-2/Research
-1/Access

 Game
------
Seed: 1464125269
^Manual?: 0
Play Time: 218 min
Sessions: 3
Mod: N/A
Game No.: 45
ASCII: 0
Keyboard: 0
Movement: Mouse
Fullscreen: 1
Font: 16/Dina
Map View: 90x50
FOV Handling: Fade In


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7141

[zxc]

Flying and being stealthy is hella fun isn't it? This is what I nearly always go for and it's always remarkable when you get shaking hands from playing a turn-based roguelike. It's hard to explain this kind of thing to other people.

Damn, you were so close! So unfortunate to die so close to the exit. I had a similarly crazy Access in one of the weekly seeds a while back which I uploaded to youtube at .

Actually K, one very minor thing I'd suggest is for the scoresheet to be wider so that information could be shown with fewer lines. I'm thinking of the DCSS scoresheet for instance (example: https://crawl.project357.org/morgue/zzxc/morgue-zzxc-20160408-120639.txt)

[Kyzrati]

Wow, nice comeback build. Currently underpowered for a combat run, though, with only two weapon slots. Did you take the first Extension detour to build yourself up? Where'd you get all that stuff?

All from Transporters carrying stuff back and forth, plus a couple other miscellaneous bots. =D I spent a looooong time (EDIT: ~800 turns) just camping there and killing passerby.  I had a transmission jammer to stop the Watchers or anyone else from calling for help. MUHAHAHA

Ah, the mystery is solved. I wasn't able to figure out what you could've done at that point in your story. Wow, that's cheap (okay, clever)

Nice and eventful run! Sucks to die so close, and honestly your post got me thinking of something I forgot there at the end: The shell should automatically retract regardless of which side you enter from, including the blast door side, but as is I only have it triggering from the locked side. I'll make sure it triggers from all sides. (My assumption--which obviously doesn't always hold true--was that if you're coming through the guarded blast door side you'll have the firepower to easily punch through the shell.)

Pretty low security level you enjoyed throughout that run despite engaging in some combat.

Cogmind. Causing shaky hands since 2015.

Actually K, one very minor thing I'd suggest is for the scoresheet to be wider so that information could be shown with fewer lines. I'm thinking of the DCSS scoresheet for instance (example: https://crawl.project357.org/morgue/zzxc/morgue-zzxc-20160408-120639.txt)

Yep, it's planned!

The 7DRL just started with a list of stats, and it kept growing, and growing, and growing... and now there are zillions of them. I talked some about the possibilities at the end of my Morgue Files article.

I don't believe that post specifically mentions the most important aspect, though, that the entire score sheet will be reorganized to allow for tables and more condensed data in general. The current simple implementation requires one line per value, partially because that's the format my parser also reads to compile the scores, and it's much easier to read data that's organized that way. So what I want to do is instead store score data in a separate format for easy parsing, regardless of its form, and output a text file for players that can look like whatever I want because it doesn't need to be parsed. I have to put this off until closer to 1.0, to make sure the new system will cover all the needs, since the score system is still expanding. It'll be a pretty big project to convert the whole system, but it's important to me (and no doubt more of you )