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Cogmind

Grid Sage Games |

Experience sci-fi tactical combat and exploration in a procedural world that combines traditional roguelikes with an immersive modern interface like no other. Build yourself from components found or salvaged from other robots. Attach power sources, propulsion units, utilities, and weapons to become a slow tank bristling with weapons, or a fast-moving flier zipping past enemies before they even have time to react, or a stealthy sword-wielding assassin/hacker, or whatever else you can come up with from the salvage you find. The situation can quickly change as you lose components and rebuild yourself from enemy remains. You are the Cogmind. Discover what that means as you explore a living, breathing world ruled by robots.

Report RSS Alpha 6 Released: Perfect Balance

Two new maps, streamlined propulsion mechanics, a hacking overhaul, and other balance tweaks.

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Since the last release Cogmind has made a number of those Top Games of 2015/2016 lists that pop up around the turn of the year, keeping sales rolling along at a minimal pace, just enough to support perpetual development for now :D

Once again, my thanks goes out to everyone for your support, since you're all an important factor in making Cogmind the best it can be.

And with that I bring you ALPHA 6!

Here are some of the more showable non-spoilery features included in today's release:

You'll notice more interactive machines, especially in the mid- and late-game, because there has never been enough room to place all those I wanted, but now they can be embedded into walls.


Processors and hackware are now destroyed on removal, so they needed a new color for their drag-drop box as a warning, and are also indicated with a faint colon to the left of their letter. (And of course there's a new animation and sfx for their removal.)


Quality of life: All manual hacking commands are now case-insensitive!


Double your quality of life: All fully-disarmed combat robots are shown at half brightness.


All Field Recycling Units now have completely different behavior. They basically suck up parts from the ground and convert them to matter for you over time. You'll see new indicators on your HUD matter readout when you have one active as well--you can essentially generate matter!


Hcp. Storage Units are no more! Wave goodbye! You can certainly still achieve large inventory sizes, but will have to sacrifice a little more slot space to do so.


Just for fun, the new smallest font is no longer size 10

-- it now goes down to size 8 and allows the game to be played in a 480p window.


(As usual I can't spoil the new map areas, otherwise there would be some much more awesome stuff to show here :P)

See here for the full release notes with plenty more details.

Full Changelog - Cogmind Alpha 6 (0.10.160119):

  • NEW: Branch map "Archives"
  • NEW: Branch map "Hub_04(d)"
  • NEW: 1 major plot event
  • NEW: 1 more story-related NPC encounter
  • NEW: 3 new NPCs (unique robot classes)
  • NEW: 1 new prototype robot
  • NEW: 2 new weapons
  • NEW: 2 new terminal records
  • NEW: New Trojan hack (secret)
  • NEW: Various additional sound effects (total now at 711)
  • NEW: Fourth way to enable access to final lift to surface
  • NEW: Removal/replacement of attached processors and hackware destroys them, with unique UI animation/sfx
  • NEW: Destroy-on-removal parts marked with a dark colon in parts list
  • NEW: Drag-dropping a destroy-on-removal part from the attached parts list shows in red rather than white, to indicate it will be destroyed
  • NEW: Disarmed combat robots shown at half brightness
  • NEW: All Field Recycling Units vastly improved with new behavior, acting as "vacuums" that convert salvage to matter over time
  • NEW: HUD matter readout displays Field Recycling Unit scrap storage and distribution rate when applicable
  • NEW: Interactive machines may be embedded in walls
  • NEW: Firing weapons in non-reinforced environments may cause cave-ins, where the chance depends on the class of weapon
  • NEW: Mouse players can left-click on a wall to enter fire mode (so that force-attacking can be achieved without the keyboard at all)
  • NEW: Manual entry of hacking commands is case-insensitive (including both the command itself and any optional arguments)
  • NEW: Schematics and analyses already obtained are grayed out when hacking terminals
  • NEW: Flying Cogminds can force-attack (Ctrl-Shift) adjacent robots to ram them when unarmed, rather than flying overhead
  • NEW: New font size, 8, enabling 640x480p UI (purely for fun, was easy to add)
  • MOD: Many propulsion stat values reworked!
  • MOD: Simplified propulsion mechanics and all known calculation oddities at very high speeds and overweight situations ironed out
  • MOD: Ground-based propulsion (wheels/legs/treads) no longer slows with each additional module
  • MOD: Airborne propulsion (hover/flight) no longer has a per-part limit on max speed (is type-based)
  • MOD: As a side effect of propulsion changes, most hostiles slightly slower
  • MOD: Wheels have an advantage now, but still suffer from low integrity
  • MOD: Backup Propulsion I/III/VII nerfed
  • MOD: Tread recoil dampening effect reduced to 1 per active tread slot
  • MOD: Hunter-class Slayer/Assassin/Terminator variants' firepower reduced
  • MOD: Reactive armors reduced in size; mass significantly increased to compensate
  • MOD: Removed Fabricators from Materials floors
  • MOD: Interactive machine placement weights use unique values for each machine, causing some to be more likely, or only, found in rooms
  • MOD: Complex 0b10 rooms are slightly less likely to be empty
  • MOD: Complex 0b10 contains more interactive machines, especially terminals, in Factory and Research floors
  • MOD: Non-combat robots no longer allowed to spawn in hidden corridors used by combat robots
  • MOD: Cave-ins caused by explosions are postponed for one or more turns after the explosion occurs, and are also more common
  • MOD: Explosions, especially more powerful ones, are more likely to cause cave-ins
  • MOD: "Go naked" command (Shift-Alt-q) switched to Shift-Alt-p, to avoid conflicts with non-Windows OS commands
  • MOD: Removed item "durability" stat; all slots have equivalent coverage for purposes of determining impact damage location
  • MOD: Removed system familiarity mechanic for both machine and robot hacking
  • MOD: Removed Footprint Analyzers and System Mapper hackware
  • MOD: Spectral Analyzer energy upkeep dropped to 0
  • MOD: All processor mass dropped to 0 (44 parts including all interpreters, analyzers, targeting computers, etc.)
  • MOD: All processor and hackware coverage dropped by 88%
  • MOD: Better hackware is available earlier, and also more consistently from Operators
  • MOD: Merged both offensive hackware types (strength/tunneling) into a single type, where base type = Hacking Suite
  • MOD: Merged all three defensive hackware types (stealth/evasion/defense) into a single type (base type = System Shield)
  • MOD: Condensed 20 hackware parts into a new set of 12
  • MOD: Removed terminal trace reset mechanic, and terminals no longer immediately test detection/tracing on reconnect (only after hacking)
  • MOD: Active terminal info shows trace progress instead of countdown
  • MOD: Manual updated to reflect all changes to propulsion, hacking, hackware, processors
  • MOD: Processors and hackware immune to rejection due to system corruption
  • MOD: Repair Stations can no longer repair processors or hackware if already attached
  • MOD: Manual hacking buffer removes earlier matching entries when a new command is entered (previously only removed consecutive entries)
  • MOD: Removed upkeep for malfunction blockers (e.g. Error Protection Suite), instead having it consume 20 matter on effect (if available)
  • MOD: Running via keyboard stops on stairs rather than ascending (regardless of auto-ascend setting)
  • MOD: Line-of-fire color no longer considers friend/foe relationship, just pure obstruction
  • MOD: Datajacks and Stasis Projectors no longer display projectile/hit data in info window (no meaning since based on special effects)
  • MOD: Field Recycling Units reduced to 1 slot, are heavier, and have both active heat and energy requirements
  • MOD: Particle Gun (G-47 Trooper armament) stats adjusted: shorter range, lower energy cost, higher heat, greater damage range
  • MOD: Removed Hcp. Storage Units, and mass of Lrg. units increase to 16 (+2)
  • MOD: Further improved effect of Launcher Guidance Computers
  • MOD: Hostile Grunt, Sentry, Specialist, and Programmer variants have better heat management
  • FIX: Crash when an assimilated Spotter explored to the edge of the known map [zill]
  • FIX: Crash on simultaneously destroying an entire array of ambush traps [Decker]
  • FIX: Signal Interpreter secondary effect description did not clearly indicate adjacency requirement for identifying exits [Sherlockkat]
  • FIX: Repair Station failure to repair an attached part which was broken in the process was not reflected in parts list [MJWkr]
  • FIX: Broken power sources continued contributing to energy storage capacity [greymedicine]
  • FIX: Alert(Check)-reported security level suffix was always 'Z', not A~Z as intended (to reflect progression towards next alert status)
  • FIX: Art for Imp. Fusion Compressor contained a few miscolored glyphs
  • FIX: Multi-tile doors played opening sound for every move along/through them, if move commands entered slowly

As a reward for making it to the bottom of this lengthy post... have a bunch of New Year's explosions!

Chain-firing 30 missiles using a debug build.(Note that you cannot do this in game--while working on Alpha 6 I just set this up to record it for fun around the new year.)

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