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[Erata]

I love how the game can be played without having to keep checking the log window all the time, but I still find myself occasionally in situations where I have to keep a look at it (or at the parts list) to check if one particular message pops up: When parts are destroyed. Naturally I want to catch when that happens as soon as possible so I can swap parts in.

My suggestion would be a red X tile appearing over the player very briefly at the beginning of the turn where a part was destroyed. That would add important combat info to the map I think.

Less of an issue: Knowing when enemies died, that is clear enough most of the time, but sometimes at bottlenecks you can only see one enemy and when they die if they're replaced by another enemy with the same sprite you can't be sure the enemy died unless you look at the log, a red X briefly on their death position at the turn of their death would give some extra info too.

Love the game by the way, it's really great!

[Kyzrati]

Hi Erata! Yeah I've put as much as possible on the map without it being too overwhelming, but there will always be the occasional need to look at the log for details.

For part destruction we have both the audio cue and animation of the parts list, though maybe something else could be done... We do already have on-map part destruction indicators for other bots--the name of the item itself, though this would likely be too intrusive to apply to Cogmind. Maybe rather than a red 'X' though, maybe just turning Cogmind red? I guess that wouldn't be quite as effective as a symbol in all cases though. These could all be optional features, in any case.

As for bot destruction, other than the log message (and seeing parts dropping and debris flying, if there's room), the audio is the primary cue, since that is both unique and long. I don't think putting an 'X' on their death location would be great in the situation you mention since then it covers up the current action. Can't think of anything else I'd want to do there...

[Kyzrati]

Beta 8 comes with a new advanced option with three different settings to indicate part loss:

[Valguris]

Awesome! I'm definitely going to try out the option that shows lost part's name. (Often when losing a part, I had to check logs to know which one I lost.)

[Kyzrati]

Yeah I go to the log as well, where they're all pretty easy to see since they stick out in red (this is the main reason I hit F4 after some battles, just to scan that to later find what I'd lost).

I do like the name style (it's useful for enemies), though personally I don't like the idea of covering up that much area around Cogmind in the middle of combat. Maybe I'll try that one, too, though, see how it feels...

Anyway, it's an option

[Erata]

Beautiful!

I mostly play with some other audio playing over the game so I wasn't aware of those sound cues.

Another unrelated change I thing would work is having the 'stop movement when threat is detected' also stop the wait command from working. Sometimes when waiting for a patrol to pass through while inside a room I can either keep moving left and right to pass time faster without being at risk, or press the wait button slowly to be sure I don't lose any turns if something comes through the door.

[Kyzrati]

Another unrelated change I thing would work is having the 'stop movement when threat is detected' also stop the wait command from working. Sometimes when waiting for a patrol to pass through while inside a room I can either keep moving left and right to pass time faster without being at risk, or press the wait button slowly to be sure I don't lose any turns if something comes through the door.

This is already a feature. Holding wait is a thing you can do, but note that fast enemies might still get a shot off, which is the same behavior as if you had slowly waited in a turn-wise manner.

See the manual section on "Key Holding" for all the situations which have automatic blocks on them.