Next week Cogmind will break its own record again with yet another "biggest release ever." The story is finished and, having given this release an extra week in development, for once I finished my
list of features I wanted to get into a single major release, rather than having to postpone some.
earlier today, you'll notice that we are leaving Alpha. Cogmind is still not truly "done," but I've decided that from here until 1.0 we'll be calling them Beta releases to signal that while development is still not complete, it's no longer as early as "Alpha" might imply. This is a huge milestone, technically bigger than the future 1.0 itself, and the switch also reflects a coming change in pace: we'll be seeing fewer large releases in favor of putting out smaller updates more quickly.
What all comes with our first Beta release? The final missing map, seven animated endings, lots of challenge modes, visible sound effects, revamped combat scoring, crushing, kicking, and gunslinger mechanics... the list is very, very, long. Check out some of these new features and more below.
Lots and lots and lots of new ASCII animation work:
Some new items to play around with:
Sources of unseen sound effects are shown on map:
Same scenario without seeing the map, to demonstrate more clearly:
All-gun volleys have a good chance to continue firing at additional targets if the first shots in their volley destroy their initial target:
Part info data visualization has a mode with shorter bar graphs with specific values:
(A still shot comparing the difference:)
Treads crush instead of ram:
And of course there are some new ones that are better at it
Also kicking mechanics for legged Cogminds:
Non-part item info includes battery indicator for those with limited use:
Game over screen now has buttons at the bottom for mouse access:
Random seeds are now procedurally generated fake item names (
more info on blog). Examples:
EM spectrum types now also explicitly display their chance to trigger their side-effect:
Allied Mechanics can now repair again!
Alien artifact labels/names are marked with two asterisks instead of one, to differentiate them a bit from prototypes:
Even destroyed
walls can cave in:
But you get free knowledge of which spaces those are, including in the caves:
And you can make them brighter temporarily by holding Ctrl and Alt:
Did I say new items to play around with?
If no weapons active, volley range visualization glows entire FOV red instead of showing nothing:
Active challenge modes are listed in the log, because there are now many and most can be activated together (if you're that crazy):
Pure Core Challenge mode, where you have no inventory and storage parts are all converted to matter instead:
Super Gauntlet Challenge mode, where you can only advance through garrisons because everything else is blocked off:
Devolution Challenge mode, where you can
start like a godbot and get continually weaker:
Leaderboards ready to handle different win conditions:
As well as a dedicated board for challenge mode players:
Allies will no longer step on known avoidable hostile traps, i.e. no more of this:
New utility CYCLE button for mouse users (and the " key for keyboard players) to toggle upkeep utilities all at once:
Machine resistance info is now free (no Structural Scanner required!):
Stats for doors and walls are now available in keyboard mode:
Corruption due to part destruction by impact shows a blue ASCII animation on target:
Also a UI effect for Cogmind on the same:
Never-before-seen lore- or benefit-related dialogue markers now blink until you talk to the NPC:
No target autoreload after destroying an intentionally targeted machine in keyboard mode:
New Transmission Jammer activation animation to match its revamped mechanics:
All successful hack results are mirrored to the message log:
Subzero temperatures are now possible:
Damage type abbreviations are color-coded in weapon info summaries:
Part info summaries for overloaded parts reflect their modified values (and highlight them!):
