Sorry for the lack of updates here on IndieDB. I was seriously injured and had to stop for a while, and though I've been posting shorter updates through other channels (like the forum announcements) I didn't have any content significant enough to share here in the meantime.
Now we're more or less back on track, and COMING TO STEAM!
I finally pressed The Button.
That's right, after more than four years of development Cogmind has nearly reached completion, so I'm putting it into Early Access. "EA?!" Yeah, that's kinda funny since it's already a fully-playable, balanced, and generally bug-free experience, complete with tons of content and even seven endings to discover. But I have plenty more I'm interested in adding, and of course players are interested in seeing these things added, so for now I'll be using EA to indicate that there's even more to come :D
The official launch is set for October 16th, 6pm PDT. Check out the Coming Soon page for more info, and to wishlist it if you'd like to be notified. (Of course I'll be posting additional announcements here and elsewhere, too!)
Thanks everyone for your support so far, and I'm hoping when the time comes you'll review Cogmind on Steam to help convince prospective players that it's a project worth supporting! More support means more features :D
I still have a lot of preparations to do, and one of the first steps was to replace the two-year-old gifs on the main website:
Destruction!
Inventory management, ASCII destruction, and some repair, too :)
Cogmind has also just reached its final pre-Steam state, with Beta 2 receiving two new updates that add a fair amount of fun and useful stuff. It's worth updating if you're playing already, especially with the most recent 2.2 and its revamped propulsion and shields.
Beta 2.1 (0.10.170718) "0b10 Decoder" changelog:
* NEW: Item gallery UI also gives access to item info
* NEW: Added more manual sections, including how to activate the on-map combat log and a description of how Cogmind is different from other roguelikes
* NEW: Dedicated \\ZION-REPORT command for intel retrieval
* NEW: 4 new items (utility with unique mechanics)
* NEW: 1 more Trojan() hack (secret)
* MOD: Core resets no longer unidentify items held in inventory
* MOD: Fabricating any variant of Cmb. hover now produces a pair instead of one
* MOD: Maul and Hvy. Hammer differentiated by giving latter wider damage range
* MOD: Tweaks to experimental Z-armor stats
* MOD: Spread Lasers assigned a new "Minimal" heat transfer level
* MOD: Allied Mechanics can only repair the same parts that Repair Stations can
* MOD: Drone Bay shrunk to 1 slot, integrity reduced, art updated
* MOD: Sensor Array scan data erased if it appears within FOV for fast-moving Cogminds, even between turns
* MOD: Partial spotting rules take into account effect of machine obstruction on sight range
* MOD: Upped animation speed for Lgt. Assault Rifles and all weapons that use a similar animation
* FIX: Non-ASCII character filter added to in-game manual for Beta 2 was also filtering out some legitimate special punctuation [zxc]
* FIX: Was possible to auto-extract resources from unidentified containers on the ground [zxc]
* FIX: Credits list contained some duplicate supporter names [zxc]
* FIX: A certain lab terminal was missing, making it impossible to acquire two pieces of tech lore [zxc, GJ]
* FIX: Imp Segregator attacks automatically destroyed Cogmind's top-listed power source instead of the Imp's [DDarkRay]
* FIX: Adding a subdirectory to the /user/ directory would crash game the first time it starts up each day (bug in automated backup system) [DDarkRay]
* FIX: Manifests terminal hack in some cases reported higher item counts than were actually being transported [Sherlockkat]
* FIX: Optional "-nonportable" switch added in Beta 2 didn't fully work [Gexgekko]
* FIX: Some Grunt analyses referenced old resistances [Amphouse]
Item stats accessed from gallery.
Faster assault rifle animations.
Activating... one of the new items :D
Beta 2.2 (0.10.170926) "Shields for All" changelog:
* NEW: 17 new items (several with new mechanics)
* NEW: 2 new minor encounters in Mines
* NEW: Many terminals now also contain random item schematics
* NEW: Hack failure output also displays the chance of success, including for indirect hacks
* NEW: "Survival Tips" added to beginning of manual, including in-game reminders to check them out
* NEW: Researchers also react to spotting ramming/kicking/crushing attacks
* NEW: Attempted ramming/kicking/crushing attacks in view of a Researcher displays warning, as with other attacks
* NEW: run.log records the number of loaded rebinds and keyboard layout changes
* NEW: A few straggler Alpha supporter names registered since Beta 2 added to in-game list (see Credits menu)
* MOD: All multislot parts immune to severing
* MOD: Swapped support of Imp. Q-thruster and Cld. Q-thruster
* MOD: Cmb. Antigrav System coverage lowered from 55 to 35
* MOD: Hyp. Gauss Rifle and Hyp. Railgun recoil set to 1
* MOD: Adjustments to lore CSV and HTML output to avoid confusion between two particular categories with the same name
* MOD: Removed all references to "direct fire" weapons from utility effect descriptions to avoid confusion
* MOD: Ramming/kicking/crushing damage is capped at 100, before the damage roll
* MOD: Remote Shield Generators renamed to Remote Shields
* MOD: Remote Shield (and similar utility) effects no longer stack with each other, regular Force Fields, or other shielding effects
* MOD: VFP coverage tripled
* MOD: Art for many shield utilities swapped around to suit new sets
* MOD: Energy Mantle renamed to Remote Force Field
* MOD: Quantum Shroud renamed to Energy Mantle
* MOD: Looping through Access-depth Garrisons no longer advised
* MOD: Network Hub bonus increased, but multiple hubs provide diminishing returns
* MOD: On-map item labels always show rating where applicable, even if Tactical HUD off
* MOD: Robot salvage in caves does not self-destruct in the easiest difficulty mode
* MOD: "Armored" items renamed to use "Arm." new prefix
* MOD: Removed Com. Heavy Treads
* MOD: Dur. Treads and Dur. Medium Treads replaced by Armored variants
* MOD: Spiked and Heavy tread variants now move at same base speed as regular treads
* MOD: Base penalty for overweight treads increased from 20 to 30
* MOD: Heavy tread variants have increased support
* MOD: Many special tread-based robot variants switched to new types of treads
* MOD: Most wheel stats adjusted, particularly even lower overweight penalty and somewhat lower coverage
* MOD: Imp. Spread Laser range increased from 8 to 10
* MOD: Ambush traps no longer appear in Materials
* MOD: Allied drones ordered to return to their bay will always do so even if under fire and otherwise attempting to flee
* MOD: Tutorial message memory no longer completely resets itself when new additions are made (file format changed)
* FIX: Opening a hacking window within 5s of loading a game that logs an internal warning shows a line of garbled characters behind window [DDarkRay]
* FIX: Crash on triggering a trap while sound card disabled [mungomongol8]
* FIX: Crash if Phasing AFG resulted in an item overlapped with a non-cardinally adjacent door attempting to close [GJ]
* FIX: Crash if allied drone parked at edge of map view spotted a self-destructing part just outside view [GJ]
* FIX: Tread crushing effect description did not cap chance value, causing largest tread type in world to display incorrect percentage [GJ]
* FIX: Schematic(Matter) was accessible via indirect hack (albeit meaningless) [GJ]
* FIX: Rewiring of disrupted robots via datajacks was possible even on hack-immune bots [GJ]
* FIX: Relative value coloring of regenerative plating inverted [GJ]
* FIX: Cannibalization Units could in some cases restore parts to greater than max integrity [GJ]
* FIX: Actual botnet effect was lower than advertised in the tooltip [GJ]
* FIX: Newly allowed inventory item ID retention on core reset was also identifying previously unknown prototypes [Sherlockkat]
* FIX: A random dialogue encounter still referenced an old renamed NPC class [Sherlockkat]
* FIX: An earlier adjustment to a Zion encounter could cause certain allies to join before intended contingent on map layout [Sherlockkat]
* FIX: Typo in newly added dialogue [Sherlockkat]
* FIX: Typo in lore export category named after a major NPC [lsend]
* FIX: Multiple core resets would erase artifact knowledge without restoring it [lsend]
* FIX: Missing period in Propulsion Shielding description [Amphouse]
* FIX: Prototypes, Schematic(), and Analysis() terminals hacks listed incorrect chance of success (somewhat lower than advertised)
One of the 17 new items.
Failed hack chances are shown in the hacking results window, most useful for indirect hacks.
Drones returning directly to their bay on command (ignoring enemy fire rather than fleeing).
Bonus Images!
While recovering from my injury and trying to ease back into development, one of the things I played around with was changing the wall appearance in ASCII mode. Note these were purely for fun and won't necessarily be added as options, but it wasn't too hard to get some simple tests up and running to see what they look like, so why not!
Small blocks.
Large blocks.
Completely solid.
Completely solid without floor dots.
I even found the old X@COM wall code still sitting in the Cogmind code base, so here we have oriented narrow line walls.
I wanted to see what some wall-related animations might look like as they interact with the different cells, so I tried an Exp. Terrain Scanner on the solid walls.
Exp. Terrain Scanner as seen on the linewalls.
Next up, Steam time! (But yeah I'll keep selling direct from my site as well, of course :D)
Damn dude, I hope you're ok?
Yeah I'm at least... able to work again xD
Got a concussion and unlike most people who recover in maybe a week or two, it's been messing me up bad for almost half a year now, and it got *really* bad for a while. I'm doing new treatments now--lots of what would be dev time is instead spent in the hospital... but at least it's turned things around enough that I can make progress. (Working with a concussion is bad, but running out of money is also bad!)
Anyway, I'm trying to stay as balanced as possible here, so you know, sticking to within 40-hour work weeks and actually taking occasional little breaks for a change :P
Back to the topic at hand... STEAM! I uploaded the first build just this afternoon and tested--working nicely :D
Damn sounds pretty serious, but as long as you're ok! Glad to hear the test on Steam worked well, I've now got it in my wish list (but will wait for a sale i'm afraid) and can't wait to see what other features you put in future builds.
I'm as good as can be given the circumstances :)
There are lots of fun potential features to choose from, though that also means full release could be a while away. Note there also won't be any significant sales until some time *after* 1.0--before then only up to 10% off (including for example the launch discount), but Steam will at least have regional pricing for those outside USD/EUR countries.
I'll be keeping an eye on it here and on steam so I know when to take the jump :)
Also looking forward to a potential revival of XCOMRL ;)
Well I've spawned a little me to help take care of side projects, but he's only in preschool right now so I don't know if that plan is going to pan out within the next decade xD
Yeah they tend not to be very helpful with side projects until around 8 or so (my 6 year old was trying to help me build her new bed last night, many tools went missing)