A little while back I was streaming a Cogmind run on Twitch, at one point once again sending out drones to scout around as I like to do. Drones are generally pretty fast, and I'll often just make sure I'm in a relatively safe spot and keep an eye on what the drone(s) find while I wait and decide where to go next.
The drone centering and following feature added back in Beta 10 has been quite useful for this purpose. (For years before that you had to actually scroll the map yourself!)
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2023-11-15 02:58:21 +0000 UTC
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v0.10, to be precise. Or at least that's what I imagine the creator would want to emphasize.
Teleportation. It's cool. You like it. Your enemies maybe not so much.
As a concept, teleportation exists in quite a few varieties through Cogmind, only some of which Cogmind has direct access to. I'm going to go ahead and just make this a SPOILER post as far as past/existing content goes, so that I can write freely about related mechanics, so maybe don't read thi...
2023-11-10 23:57:38 +0000 UTC
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As you probably know, Cogmind is big on balance, an emphasis achieved initially through adherence to carefully designed patterns and formulas. But then Cogmind is also always expanding with new content that needs to fit into the existing world, either closer to that core or somewhere out on the fringes.
As far as core items go, simple stats are generally sufficient to enforce ba...
2023-10-20 03:31:15 +0000 UTC
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Recently I've been getting the occasional question about progress, especially as there have been no more prereleases like we might otherwise have had by now, and although I've been answering those queries in various places when I get them (usually on Discord), I thought I'd also let any folks here have a better idea of where we stand at the moment, in the bigger picture.
2023-10-16 08:57:18 +0000 UTC
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80 new parts! That's where Beta 13 is currently stands as I continue to build new mechanics and features that will support all these new NPCs and faction capabilities. Today I'll share another of them with you in advance, one which I think will be much appreciated and quite interesting to use: the "ID Mask."
In short, this is the consumable "disguise utility" that allows you to travel unnotice...
2023-09-29 04:31:35 +0000 UTC
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It turns out that the last New Tech update I was building for Fun and Eventual Inclusion is actually being slipped into Beta 13 in some form, and that's not the only one!
Beta 13 needs a lot of content to fill in some cracks, so it's the perfect opportunity to check out my long-term list of isolated concepts to see what might be suitable for the required depths and relevant to the lore. Well this month I revi...
2023-08-25 12:21:50 +0000 UTC
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Ever since my very first design docs from Cogmind pre-alpha, written back in 2013, I always wanted a projectile deflection mechanic. Like it doesn't get much cooler than that, being able to swat away bullets or even send beams back at an attacker, or redirect them into other targets.
Every few years I think about the concept again, and it finds its way into my ongoing notes in yet another location in some slightly-altered form or alongside some other content idea, begging to be implemen...
2023-08-02 13:23:23 +0000 UTC
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So Beta 13's first prerelease from a few weeks ago seems to have gone fairly well. After a couple hotfix/adjustment releases I put out in subsequent days, aside from being away on a trip for a bit last week I continued observing patron runs and played a bit myself (stream!), then made a few more adjustments I'm here to share with y...
2023-07-14 10:00:58 +0000 UTC
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There are some debugging commands that I've used before, and still use occasionally, that haven't been included in Wizard Mode. Another batch of those has been moved over to the public build since they might be of use to you.
I've updated the Guide containing the full list of commands, but here's an excerpt specifically introducing the new ones:
- "coords": Display both the map coor...
2023-07-14 10:00:49 +0000 UTC
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While Beta 13 is indeed scheduled to include the UFD (and of course "Scraptown") hence the official name of this release, that is not actually what this X1 prerelease is about! I'm doing all the background/other stuff first, and as you'll see it's... a fair amount ;)
- We have the revamped combat log, which I wrote about here.
- Among a collection of new mechanics we finally have examples of the "t...
2023-06-22 01:25:49 +0000 UTC
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So, just a little late on this... okay a good bit later than I both expected and wanted due to repeated injuries xD. First a slight head injury that ended up forcing me to stop streaming 7drls after that seventh video because each of the final two streams was noticeably messing me up and causing setbacks in treatment progress.
Then a broken bone. Okay sure whatever I can deal with that, especially since that broken bone saved me from much more serious injuries by breaking a fal...
2023-05-15 12:51:02 +0000 UTC
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I finally did it! An article about writing articles! :P
Or at least one small aspect of it, anyway--there are really quite a few possible subtopics here, but this was a meta topic I got curious about myself and wanted to explore a bit. You can read my words about words here (password: "words!").
(In other news, the combat log is really shaping up a...
2023-04-28 07:08:57 +0000 UTC
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As mentioned when I started a few weeks back, again this year I've been streaming new 7DRLs, both to check out and share interesting entries while also providing feedback for other developers on their projects. I will be skipping this week's stream because doing that has been really hard the past couple times after having yet more issues with my easily-triggered post-concussion syndrome, but the whole process is about wrapped up at this point anyway, with probably just a few stragglers left o...
2023-04-24 01:50:42 +0000 UTC
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In previous patron feature voting I've generally included a "combat log update" option, and it always gets a lot of votes, consistently making a very competitive run for the top spot. Now if I were the only Cogmind player, I'd be happy to just rip that log out and put some totally unrelated UI supporting a different mechanic in its place (there were actually plans for such a thing in pre-alpha--I dropped it for various reasons), but I know there has been consistent interest in an improved com...
2023-03-30 08:13:09 +0000 UTC
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Beta 12 is done, to be released some time next week, but let's test it out first! I'm calling this one X7 even thought it's probably the same thing that will be released publicly (and even if it isn't saves will/should technically be compatible after the transition).
Speaking of saves, with this release we have a new "old save notification" system that will more specifically identify the compatible Cogmind version that goes with whatever most recent old save file it found in your direct...
2023-02-25 02:22:53 +0000 UTC
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Back in 2021 I introduced the Active Sensor Suite, and before that described how the desire paths are generated as part of the info it provides. At the time all of the Active Sensor data was generated automatically based on formulas, which makes sense as a good ...
2023-02-20 05:04:38 +0000 UTC
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The stats are in! Part 2 (the last) of the Polymind series includes a bunch of interesting data I organized from the runs submitted during the event period, along with some strategy info and other dev talk.
You can check out the full article here (pw: "backuparmor").
I'm still overseas at the moment, but will be coming back later this...
2023-02-07 18:34:51 +0000 UTC
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I've been doing a lot of writing lately, so we've got some blog posts coming up, the first of which is Part 1 of our Polymind review (it just got way too long to make it a single post xD). You can check that out on the blog here (password: "designmind").
I'm happy with the mode overall, and maybe some of its tech will feed back into Co...
2023-01-28 22:10:02 +0000 UTC
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Polymind has been added to our latest and greatest Beta, now up to X6, having "skipped" X5 since I was using that designation internally as an intermediate step while bringing Polymind forward before more recently continuing to add a few new features and tweaks on the road to finalizing Beta 12.
If you recall from my 2023 intro post, there was the possibility of changing our pace here, which I've now committe...
2023-01-18 04:11:27 +0000 UTC
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So Polymind turned out pretty nicely! I streamed that once so far (now on YT channel), and even released another balance update for it yesterday since I finally had some real playtesting done, and wanted to get that out while the official event period was still early enough that it'll make a differen...
2022-12-30 14:46:10 +0000 UTC
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Oh my, we're going backwards now :P
In early December I decided we really needed a new release, and since Beta 12 expanded significantly so that wouldn't have been anytime soon, naturally what we need, and haven't gotten for a long while... is an event!
So welcome to the special new Winter 2022 mode: Polymind. Not to be confused with POLYBOT-7, mind you--complet...
2022-12-24 01:56:14 +0000 UTC
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Ack, so last month was wife with Covid, and this month it finally got me, my son, and even a visiting relative xD (hence why I suddenly stopped streaming again...)
So things have been pretty crazy around here and life is once again trying its best to obstruct progress, BUT in the meantime when I could I did still manage to put together this new article on a topic I've wanted to write about for years, looking at Cogmind and lots of other roguelikes in terms of backtracking.
<...
2022-11-29 03:33:45 +0000 UTC
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A long time ago in my plans for 2020 I wrote a bit about an exoskeleton concept, a mechanic that I'd been considering for even a long while before that. It never actually happened then, nor did it happen later in Beta 11 despite appearing first on the list of other "planned" features for that release.
Clearly neither of those menti...
2022-11-11 04:54:48 +0000 UTC
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Development is back on track! The Covid thing is mostly behind us, followed by some post-concussion issues which kept me from getting starting right away, but now, finally, it's time for the real Beta 12 to take shape...
The first map is a new type of cave area--not Lower, not Upper, and not Proxy, but something else :)
It's linked to the world in a somewhat unique way so I'm not quite done with that bit yet, but I already completed the first order of business, that is ge...
2022-10-30 04:28:04 +0000 UTC
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Ack, what a week! October was supposed to be New Content Full Speed Ahead month, complete with amazing progress on a bunch of brand new stuff, but a massive wrench got thrown into the works in the form of me having to take care of family with covid, making everything just just... Not Good xD
I'm good, but all the other things to take care of around here mean I've barely had any time to even sit in front of my computer, much less actually get serious work done, so unfortunately this week...
2022-10-17 11:36:42 +0000 UTC
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My full coverage of the Scrap Engine design is now available on the blog here (pass "UFD", although I think this one will be made public quite soon because I'm going to be writing an update for Steam when Cogmind goes on a little sale this week and want to include this, plus at least half of it I've already covered in bits and pieces here before).
Anyway, check this out for more about th...
2022-10-02 12:44:42 +0000 UTC
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Since the hour was growing late as I tried to get my previous post out along with X4 shortly before heading to bed, in my haste I didn't elaborate about the Scrap Engine decision, though I can see how my cursory comment implied there was more going on behind the scenes when I wrote "which is about time since I think the Scrap Engine is here to stay, eh?"
I would point out that while I don't and can't convey everything that's discussed on the patron channel on Discord, where a dece...
2022-09-22 01:39:10 +0000 UTC
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Having finished up those articles (the bigger one still to be posted), I haven't seen anything much else that needs to be addressed yet with regard to the Scrap Engine (except for that super weird crash that happened while I was playing on stream, but no idea how to repeat that yet, and don't have data on it, but I'm sure we'll catch it at some point...). Anyway, I don't want to keep anyone interested in continuing to try it out from enjoying access to the proper multiprojectile and slashing ...
2022-09-19 11:57:19 +0000 UTC
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Over the past week I've been doing lots of writing, and ended up with a new article that weighed in at more than 7k words, so... kinda on the excessively long side for a regular read :P
I decided to split it in two, so this first part mostly covers the background info before getting into the gritty details about our new Scrap Engine toy. It's called "Item Variant...
2022-09-16 04:35:52 +0000 UTC
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Whew, okay, this super experimental release is ready and here. Technically the mechanic is not quite complete (still more possible balance changes to make, and things like siege/burnout for propulsion are not enabled), but it is very playable and demonstrates more or less what this sort of feature entails... for better or worse :P
I've already covered a bit of the general background of this feature, the so-called "Scrap Engine," in previous posts, so for this announcement I'll ...
2022-09-02 23:58:08 +0000 UTC
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