We make bad suggestions and come up with horrible ideas

[Laida]

After reaching the surface, game turns into ASCII 3D-shooter, in which you make your way through the fake city to the Sigix ship and fight with robots, coming out from the entrances to the Complexes.

[Kyzrati]

Haha that would be a great surprise xD

Actually...

(SPOILER if you haven't won before and seen the ending!)

In my original plans for the first section of the ending sequence, although you wouldn't have control over it I wanted there to be robots stationed outside to guard the Tor, and as you approached it you link up and start activating external weapons that blast them all while you make a run for the ship. Not 3D though, just an overview

[close]

There are certainly a lot of fun ways to think about how Cogmind could continue after winning/escaping. Whole other games or mechanics

[b_sen]

Cogmind / Dwarf Fortress mashup as a prequel, where you play out the backstory from the perspective of MAIN.C.

New game creation screen: (some actual Cogmind spoilers)

Spoiler

[close]

[Kyzrati]

Great mockup! For sequel ideas I've certainly spent a lot of time thinking of potential scenarios moving forward in the timeline, but not so much backward

Spoiler

Would be funny to just keep going back with different games, eventually reaching even all the way back in the timeline to when humans are defending the Solar System.

[close]

[Laida]

New game creation screen:

Wow, nice art! 

[b_sen]

New game creation screen:

Wow, nice art! 

Great mockup!

Thanks!

For sequel ideas I've certainly spent a lot of time thinking of potential scenarios moving forward in the timeline, but not so much backward

Spoiler

Would be funny to just keep going back with different games, eventually reaching even all the way back in the timeline to when humans are defending the Solar System.

[close]

Forward is generally the more natural direction, but in this particular case backward works nicely with the timeline because it's clear in Cogmind that MAIN.C has already been pretty successful at managing and expanding a "fortress"

Spoiler

- and the twists of deliberately provoking a Sigix investigation once Complex 0b1 is ready and then building Complex 0b10 also fit well -

[close]

so no retcons are needed between games.  The challenge would be somewhat different from Dwarf Fortress though, as MAIN.C's robots are a lot less finicky and more single-minded than DF's dwarves. XD  (Maybe you can't micromanage them instead, to line up with observed "glitches" in the behavior of 0b10 bots?)

Spoiler

It would be even funnier if they all drew from different genres; perhaps even X@COM-style missions for the Solar War.

[close]

[Joshua]

Challenge mode: Hackers. All patrols and dispatches replaced with Combat Programmers. The starting area has a Flight Unit, Hacking Suite and Datajack to give you a ghost of a chance.

Also, add Combat Thieves with 10 speed and Imp. Tearclaws that have 100% chance to rip off your favorite items.

Shoptown - to be honest I am not quite sure this is a bad idea lorewise because efficient markets would seem to fit in with some of the Imprinter's ideas about evolution. And Packrats and Thieves need some place to fence their stolen goods, of course. But adding money to the game would make it a tremendously different game.

[Kyzrati]

Shoptown - to be honest I am not quite sure this is a bad idea lorewise

Well if I ever get that far, to be honest this has been a major feature in my notes for a very long time, but I can't go into the details here because it may never happen, dunno.

However, this at least makes clear it's not a terrible or inappropriate idea

[Joshua]

Grease Gun: cause bots with ground-based propulsion to slide backwards a distance proportional to the recoil of weapons fired by them and also recoil from incoming volleys. Nullifies the effect of treads. If they slide into a wall or another robot, stop the slide and cause impact damage to both.

It should be standard equipment on the Combat Mechanic.

[Kyzrati]

Hahaha, Combat Mechanic xD. I love how "Combat X" is one of the go-to terms for making a fearsome new version of a bot. The most common one by far at this point is Combat Swarmers, although that's a fairly serious request, something to strike fear into the hearts of evasive flying hackminds...

Also common is the much less serious 2x2 Recycler boss

[bugsniper]

Give first-time players a vision test. For people who fail, the game just plays dwarf fortress instead.

[Kyzrati]

Or plays this

[b_sen]

Or plays this

Yup, that's the correct Dwarf Fortress-like game to play instead.  Getting a Cogmind to the surface can even still be a win condition!   (Just not by piloting it yourself...)

Endgame spoilers, including likely extended endgame content:

Spoiler

Obviously if you're getting a Cogmind to the surface in this scenario, you want it to unknowingly deliver itself to what remains of the human military instead of, say, delivering your technology to the Sigix.  An alternate, much harder, win condition would be to overcome the sabotage of whoever doesn't want you to have teleportation technology and defeat them.

[close]

E and 0b1 spoilers:

Spoiler

Have getting all the way through the Extension branch series provide a deeply-hidden secret option to break into Complex 0b1 and escape that way.  What unique dangers might a neglected Complex provide?

[close]

Challenge mode: Alien Invader.  You're so different from MAIN.C's robots that you don't even have part slots; your slots are replaced by the option to permanently integrate a corresponding number of beyond-prototype-special items.  (The list of said items may have to be somewhat revised...)  In exchange for the much better average item quality and the fact that your build can't be shot off, you have no build flexibility and 100% core exposure.

[bugsniper]

A Cogmind imprint of reading glasses. Advise people based on a reading test and their monitor size which one to choose.

[Joshua]

Melee combat should be more simulationist. It really shouldn't take the same amount of time to hack through a wall with a Particle Cleaver or Plasma Sword as with a Katana. Instead, open a side-scrolling 2D robot-vs-robot combat window where you use X, Y, A and B to chain combos against that wall...

[Laida]

Radiation contamination:
When nuclear reactor explodes, some area near it is exposed to radiation contamination. All robots in this area mutate and their class changes to "derelict - mutant"

[bugsniper]

...and they should get another slot and pick up a suitable part.

Combat operators that shut down all nearby terminals and summon more reinforcements for each one.

[Joshua]

Cursed items. Random chance for items you pick up, and ones that become non-functional, to actually provide maluses and become non-removable until blown off. That Hvy. Armor Plating you just equipped suddenly provides -100% EM resist. Now you'll really be scared of getting scanned...

[Kyzrati]

Haha!

(On a serious historical note, the idea of "prototypes" originally emerged from the roguelike concept of cursed items, though obviously reworked for the mechanics of Cogmind.)

[Joshua]

The more interesting curses are the ones that come with a huge bonus, like the One Ring. Invisibility but you get regular Ringwraith dispatches. Perhaps a high-powered EM weapon that acts as a signal generator when used (because of all the RF traffic in the area disrupting maintenance, etc.) and calls down assaults. Things like that. But that might not be in bad idea territory anymore, since there already some late game choices along those lines.

[Joshua]

Storage Units should act more like bags of holding - they should keep their contents when dropped, or if you scan one and fabricate a duplicate.

[bugsniper]

A more corporate variant of Cogmind which cannot use prototypes or hacking suites and is only corrupted by combat programmers. -50% core integrity because you're coated in glass.

[bugsniper]

When we implement a market with repair shops, Corporate Cogmind has to pay double because, even after the collapse of civilization, their legal task force remains litigious and their algorithms continue to enforce their patents.

[Joshua]

EM damage should have a chance of mutating Cogmind and granting superpowers like become immune to all projectile damage, see through walls and inside robots inventory, and time travel.

Robot Launchers that fire a Rocket Propelled Carrier which breaks apart and unleashes a cloud of Swarmers and Imps around the target.

[Joshua]

Nanoswarm Launcher: acts like a datajack attack for every robot caught in its radius, with a high chance of causing disruption if the datajack connection fails.