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[Kyzrati]

Maybe. The engine will most likely support them (it's an easy addition to the item scripting engine, which hasn't been written yet), but they could end up being a bit too powerful under player-controlled situations, so we'll wait and see how the game balances out later and whether or not it would make sense to allow them. Definitely fun potential though

[10ebbor10]

Nuclear power plants don't explode. Worst they do is give off a bit of radiation.

[Darkening Kaos]

Degraded facility functions, for a short period of time?  Or just while you hang around in that area?

[Kyzrati]

Total game-changer in the works: Allies. You'll still have the option to go it alone, but a new way to play will be to rely on friendly robots you build* or find.

Still need to add an ally observation and command interface, and the mechanics by which you gain allies, but not having your allies shoot you is a good start!

*No, currently you won't be able to design your own allies, only use stock plans. I may add customization in the future, but not initially.

[Elephant Parade]

Posting to watch.

[Kyzrati]

Just added several new features that were suggested and discussed here on Bay 12:

• New property for EM weapons: Disruption. Some low-damage EM weapons will be more focused on temporarily disabling enemy parts, or even entire robots if you hit their core.
• Ramming damage is based on momentum (mass and speed over a distance). Momentum also provides melee damage bonuses.
• "Boostable" propulsion unit mechanic, which I've named overloading (same concept as the energy weapon mechanic). Overloading hover/flight modules that support this feature will have them perform better at a higher energy and heat cost, but also degrades their integrity over time. Theoretically this can give you ridiculous speed for a time even with fewer propulsion units, and with the right setup you can surpass the original limit of about 20 spaces/turn--the max now would be 33 spaces! (Though I'm guessing that won't be easy to achieve.)

There are others that have made it into the notes for later reference and possible implementation, but these are the easier mechanics that made sense to go ahead and add now. Next I'll be working on the hacking framework.

Edit: Also just added a mechanic for deteriorating parts.

[Kyzrati]

New post about FOV in Cogmind. (Semi-technical, so devs might be interested as well.)

[Aoi]

Map knowledge will become even more important with the addition of machines and a more complex model for how enemies track you down (one you’ll be able to take advantage of).

Among the tools you have at your disposal are the traditional sensors for scanning robots and terrain at different ranges and accuracy, terminals will allow access to many kinds of map data, and now we even have allies who can spot for us (see previous post).

That bit off the most recent post had something come to mind...

Not sure if this has been covered yet, but how about different modes of detection? Infrared can see through certain types of walls, but only objects (other robots) that have a high thermal value and with no detail; visual can't see anything through walls, detects objects of all kinds, but only equipped equipment of proportionately high cover; transponders gave accurate location and equipment information of other robots, but also reveal your own position...

May be more complex than it's worth though.

[Kyzrati]

May be more complex than it's worth though.

That was my conclusion during the final round of design planning. As neat as it could *look*, from a gameplay perspective it would end up bogging everything down without providing enough of a benefit. Those features would definitely be on the table if the game were completely stealth oriented.

The only related thing still left in the design doc (as a side note unlikely to be implemented) is a way to visualize heat trails, but I don't think that feature would even be useful enough to warrant including it.

[Kyzrati]

Did a pass over the info/status windows and now they come with better animation, more color, more info, and support for art when I get around to that.

[puke]

wow, nice ascii art!  too bad it's so labor intensive... I wonder if it could be proceduralized by drawing some interchangeable components and letting them be fit together in different ways to make the various sorts of weapons and components?

maybe more work than just drawing them.  I wonder how difficult it is to contract artists who can work in ascii as a medium.  Finding traditional digital artists is about as difficult as browsing deviant art and sending some inquiries / offers, but this is a peculiar and rare skill. 

[Kyzrati]

Thanks! It's not that bad--it's actually easier than pixel art, there's just a lot of items that will need to be done. A system of interchangable parts wouldn't really look very good in this case (I've made one before for pixel art), or would at least end up with a lot of items that aren't truly unique and interesting. I'll be contracting an artist for actual pixel art, and as you say someone for that is quite easy to find, but ASCII art like this is definitely not something you see (almost ever ;p). While I'm sure there are good artists perfectly happy to experiment with it, I'd actually prefer to do this portion myself! I've done quite a lot of it myself already and have a style going.

I'll be posting more about the art sometime in the next few weeks, but here's an example of the range of art for different items from my ASCII sketchbook (scaled down to 50%) that I posted on Twitter a while back. (Click it for the 50% version.)

[Kyzrati]

New players will now have an easier time figuring out what's what without resorting to the manual. Just added the first set of context help pop-ups to the game, explaining values on the info/status windows.

[puke]

holy shit, best ascii UI ever. 

I mean, to be perfectly critical, those are all pretty traditional UI components; not exactly breaking new ground.  but in a interface using tiled characters?  wow.  never seen anything that brings those components together in this medium. 

classy.  mature.  elegant.  delivers information effectively to the user.  in ascii.

well done, sir.

...editing the post to add that I just looked over the interface screenshots again.  I really cant overstate how impressive this is.  I would pay to have someone build a UI like this.  If I saw this in a designers portfolio, I would be sold.

I mentioned above that it isnt breaking new ground, but that isn't a detractor.  I didn't mean that in a negative way.  Composing these features and elements in this format in this medium takes a lot of existing, well established, successful elements and puts them together in a way that states clearly:  This is how it Should Be Done.

[Kyzrati]

Thanks a lot

Yeah, can't exactly break new ground in every area, of course. While there are new things being done, making a proper game does require a lot of those "standard" ingredients that players expect (or at least prefer) to have. Might as well do them in an aesthetically pleasing way! Turns out that ASCII doesn't have to mean completely static screens. The next thing to worry about is how to get them to look good on YouTube, which horribly compresses anything ASCII...