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[Kyzrati]

A consumable idea for you, if you're fielding suggestions:  A capacitor that provided a massive amount of energy for you for a few brief turns, during which you could turn on everything and really let loose.

Suggestions are always welcome! Not that I can include everything, of course, but it never hurts to throw ideas around. One of the new features I'll be talking about next week happens to be the result of a random discussion online... (hidden passages).

Specifically with regard to your suggestion, it's not a consumable but I believe battery type utilities already serve that purpose, especially combined with their new feature: you can store up energy and remove them once full, then attach them later and use the stored energy (this is different from the 7DRL, where you lose the energy when they are detached). This means you can store up large amounts of power in your inventory for a sudden or prolonged need, something you'll even have to have if you want to use certain special weapons effectively.

Cogmind doesn't really use consumables, by the way, which I discuss in this post.

Read about robots.
http://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/gsg-content/uploads/2014/08/cogmind_hunter_blueprint.png

If you're looking for ideas of premium content for a KS campaign or similar, a full set of these designs for most/all of the enemy robots would be really neat.

Spoilery, yes, but then they wouldn't be out there in the open anyway, so that's okay. If people like them that could be an idea (spruced up, of course!).

I did at one point pretty much give up on the whole KS idea, but I'm still thinking it's got too many benefits to pass up. Or maybe run a little campaign of my own, just a kind of "get in on the alpha builds along with some extras for a higher price." That wouldn't be nearly as beneficial (not the same exposure), but does have the other benefits that go with KS. We'll see. Either way the timetable has been pushed back a bit (as expected) due to family stuff.

I also went the simple/direct route of letting you always know exactly how much integrity (HP) the enemy core has, and that information will be reflected in the color of their names, when I add that next week.

Can the enemy see your HP?  That might make some interesting AI choices when the enemy has both high damage/low accuracy weapons and low damage/high accuracy ones to fire.  (He's almost dead- use the accurate one!)

Technically I would allow the enemy to know your HP, but they don't use that information. Almost every robot has only one or two weapons, and they're always of the same category so there's not a whole lot of tactical choice in terms of which to use. Unlike Cogmind, most robots are very single-purpose. This helps with identifying threats / analyzing the situation, and is easier on the AI, too . Because there are generally a *lot* of enemies compared to you--it's designed as more of a one/few vs. many kind of game--they can't individually be too smart/capable.

I have to agree on the above comments on polish; this game looks REALLY slick.  The little details in how you use the medium really shine through.

[Kyzrati]

INFORMATION WARFARE

[Cross-posted from the devblog here--follow link for better formatting and light-on-dark style.]

Knowledge is king in roguelikes. I'm not talking meta knowledge--that's important, too, but this is about situational knowledge at a given point in any single run. Roguelikes are all about exploring and confronting the unknown (see intro to old fog of war post), and success is all that much closer if you can uncover as many unknowns as possible before they somehow result in your death. This is especially true in Cogmind, where a number of maps are quite large (thus containing many angry robots) and if you make too many wrong turns while unprepared you could end up with an unmanageable situation that can only spiral further out of control.

The most vital component of information warfare is knowing "what is where." This knowledge influences where you move, both within a small tactical area and on a greater strategic level, creating all subsequent situations and leading to all other results. In a static or even linear game this is not much of an issue, but with roguelikes we have randomized map layouts and content, hence this factor retains its importance every time you play.

Utility parts are the primary means of obtaining that information. For that purpose we have sensor arrays, signal interpreters, seismic analyzers, terrain scan processors, structural scanners, spectral analyzers... you get the point, there's a lot of options. You can't realistically use them all, so you have to pick what you think is more important--or whatever you can find (and maybe carry some alternatives in your inventory).

*Note that you can also forget all this and attempt to just blow everything away. This is stuff for the cautious ninjabot.

Robot Knowledge
You always have access to the basic attributes of a robot by simply opening its data page, which will show you its class, size, rating (sort of equivalent to level/difficulty), movement type and speed, core integrity, current temperature, and any weapons.

Attaching a Scan Processor will add to that a full parts list, including internal components, and better versions report core exposure (how exposed the core is to attack), salvage potential if destroyed, and damage resistances. It's not the greatest part to dedicate a slot to since player experience (or spoilers) eventually render it mostly useless. (I'd actually like to expand the usefulness of the Scan Processor and have an idea how to do it--maybe later.)

Sensor Arrays, which allow you to detect robots outside your field of vision, are far more useful. In fact, the ability to know what robots are where outside your FOV is so powerful that two separate parts are required to get the full effect:

• Sensor Arrays only tell you where there is something within their detection range. No more details, just a blip.
  
• Signal Interpreters can tell you more about those blips, ranging from size only (low-end interpreters) to class or even specific robot (high end).

This mechanic is made more interesting by the fact that not every robot out there is an enemy. So you can technically get by without a Signal Interpreter if you don't mind the occasional false alarm, or you can learn to differentiate certain blips by waiting a bit and watching its movement pattern.

Watching nearby robots move via Long-range Sensor Array (no interpreter).

The same view with and without the Advanced Signal Interpreter, which shows those robots with as much detail as if they were in your FOV! Going straight or left here we're going to run into enemies, and simply turning the corner we'll be spotted by a Watcher.

With information like that you can be a lot more confident in your movements--plot a path around hostile robots, or prefer to take on those you are better equipped to deal with, or dodge a passing patrol by ducking into a room (enjoying a suspenseful wait to see whether they plan to visit your hiding place or not ;))

Animations
Continuing on the concept of map-based informational feedback covered in the previous post, activation of all informational utilities is now accompanied by a UI animation. These animations are meant to 1) look cool, of course!, and 2) provide additional feedback where possible. If anything the animation will at least remind you of the utility's area of effect. (Alternatively that same information is available to mouse users by simply hovering the cursor over the utility in the parts list, which shows the AOE faintly superimposed over the map.)

Activating a Sensor Array shows not only its radius, but also each known robot's relation to you: hostile (red), neutral (gray), or friendly (green).

Activating an Improved Sensor Array.

Activating it can quickly pick out the threats if there are a large number of robots milling about. And remember you can repeatedly deactivate/reactivate utilities, since it's a free action, anyway.

Activating a Signal Interpreter on top of that Imp. Sensor Array.

With a powerful enough Signal Interpreter, robot labels (discussed in the previous post) also work for those outside your FOV while the interpreter is active.

Signal Interpreter with robot labels.

Map Knowledge
Knowing where other robots are is only one piece of the picture. Sure they're the only potentially dangerous thing out there, but at the wrong place and time that danger can multiply based on the map layout. Plotting an optimal path through unexplored territory is difficult without at least clues as to which routes won't lead to dead ends where you may be forced to fight. You can also save yourself a lot of trouble by finding ways to circumvent enemy positions. Recall that the main goal in Cogmind is to locate and reach exits, so one way to increase chances of survival is to search the map as efficiently as possible before attracting too much attention.

In short, you want ways to reveal the map. This is a pretty powerful ability to have and thus, like robot sensors, the full effect is divided between two separate parts:

• Terrain Scanners determine the range within which you can detect terrain.
• Terrain Scan Processors have a "density" factor which determines how quickly that terrain is revealed. A scanner providing map data without any additional processing reveals terrain at much slower rate.

With at least a scanner, terrain within a given radius is gradually revealed, providing more and more clues to the layout as you move around.

Imp. Terrain Scanner combined with a Seismic Analyzer (the weakest processor type). (I've left the radius highlight active so you can see where it scans out to.)

This means that even a low-density analysis is useful, even though it doesn't tell you everything. Eventually with enough time or sufficiently powerful processor the entire area will be revealed.

Remaining stationary while an Imp. Terrain Scanner and Imp. Terrain Scan Processor reveal the nearby layout. (I've activated a Sensor Array so you can see other robots moving around as an indicator of the passage of time.)

Activation
Activating terrain scanners will remind you of their AOE, and also happens to point out doors (just to add a little something...).

Activating an Improved Terrain Scanner.

The processor animation is pretty simple, mostly reinforcing the radius again but with brighter versions reflecting a higher density.

Activating increasingly powerful processors (their effectiveness does stack).

Hidden Doors
I haven't brought this mechanic up before. It wasn't in the original design, either--a comment on Reddit a few months ago got me thinking about them and it turns out they add so much to the game that I figured they should be added sooner rather than later. I was considering keeping them a secret (I mean hey, they're hidden doors!), but you'll start encountering them right away in the game, and they're not exactly rare (quite common, actually), so what the hell let's talk about them now.

The idea is that most maps contain a number of "emergency access" doors used only by combat robots to more quickly reach flash points. Intruders unfamiliar with the territory can be ambushed, or think they've reached a dead end and turn to fight off pursuers only to suddenly be attacked from two sides. The mechanics should lead to some interesting situations. When robots start emerging from a room you thought was empty, now you'll know why.

Terrain scanners don't reveal hidden doors, which appear as normal walls until detected. You can, however, eventually figure out where these doors are hidden if you scan enough terrain to find corridors behind walls. Obviously seeing one of these doors open also counts as detecting it. Even if you don't see it, it still opens automatically for you just like any other door, but it's unlikely you'll be spending lots of time running along room walls searching for them. You've got better things to do (and if you don't you soon will after wasting so much time).

A better option is the dedicated Structural Scanner, now carried by engineer bots. This type of scanner is useful in that it auto-identifies hidden doors as soon as they are within view.

Exploring with a Structural Scanner. Without an active scanner, walking into that room would show nothing but normal walls.

Finding hidden doors saves you lots of time, making it possible to cut corners for a more direct route to an exit, sometimes circumventing entire sections of a map.

There is also a nifty animation to go along with its activation:

Activating a Structural Scanner.

System Corruption
To a degree, both robot and map knowledge are susceptible to interference from system corruption. Once Cogmind has been corrupted, low-level Sensor Arrays will sometimes report false signals (the number of false signals increases with the degree of corruption), and you can lose map data for previously visited areas!

Corruption is caused by electromagnetic damage, though it doesn't start to play a significant role in the game until about mid-way through when the more fearsome EM-armed Programmers start tracking you down. Even if you don't immediately notice your corruption value increasing, or some of the less intrusive effects like garbled log messages, the fact that your interface starts glitching will inform you pretty quickly ;).

As in the 7DRL, system corruption has other effects, too; just wanted to drop a mention of its relation to information warfare.

Sight Range
We can't pass up this most basic element of roguelike information warfare, the maximum range to which your field of view extends. After all, it does determine what information is always immediately available and (usually) reliable.

To keep things simple, most robots have a sight range similar to your own (around 16), the main exception being Watchers that have augmented visual sensors for obvious reasons. Upgrading your own sight range, even beyond that of Watchers, is a great way to spot hostile robots before they spot you, but this only works in long corridors or large halls. Decidedly less effective than a sensor array-processor combo, though this only requires one slot.

In the 7DRL you could only guess whether an enemy had spotted you yet; now that we have a couple different ways to know that (see previous post), enhancing your sight range is a useful option.

Hacking
While not required, hacking terminals is a fairly important way to gain information, some of which overlaps with what you can obtain from the various utilities described above.

The original game was designed without hacking, though theoretically it will be nice to have alternative sources of information, as well as greater flexibility in what can be provided. From a design perspective, parts need to provide fairly equivalent benefits due to the low-resolution slot system (e.g. you start the game with only 7 slots, 2 of which accept utilities). Any items with questionable relative value will always lose out in the fight for limited inventory space. Therefore, we can't realistically rely on parts for some unique types of information. Terminals serve as a source of that information. I've mention some of the possibilities before, but the final list is not set yet.

The Other Side
Everything covered so far about information warfare is from Cogmind's point of view, when it's technically a two-way battle. What tools you choose to rely on (if any) heavily determines the outcome, though we can introduce a few more factors by also examining this topic from the enemy's perspective.

First and foremost, your position is a pretty important piece of information. Once a hostile robot spots you, it will try to alert any nearby allies and tell them where you are. If there happens to be a chain of robots in the vicinity and this information gets passed around enough, you could have a lot of company on your hands.

An interesting new part, the Transmission Jammer, can prevent hostile robots from transmitting these messages to each other. I haven't gotten far enough in world testing to see how effective it is in managing "situations," but I'd imagine it's going to be pretty useful. It automatically jams all transmissions in its area of effect.

Activating an Advanced Transmission Jammer, which will keep that Watcher (and Swarmer) from reporting my position to allies.

Unless you're really confident in your capacity to annihilate all comers, you'd do well to reveal your position only when necessary, because once certain robots are pursuing you it can be tough to shake them.

You can, however, reduce the length of time robots are capable of tracking you after you're out of sight by employing one of the ECM Suites. They are amazingly effective at getting you out of trouble, but the better ones require significant amounts of energy to operate (a balance issue).

And that's pretty much it for the other side! There is currently one robot that factors into the information warfare game in a special way, but I'll let you figure that one out. I have a couple more ideas for such robots I'd like to eventually add since there's still a lot of room to explore here.

[sambojin]

Just catching up on all things Cogmind related. So Alpha soonish?

[Kyzrati]

That... depends on your definition of "soon."

Trust me, if I had an easy way to take your money now I would

While I'm not trying to meet a specific release deadline, I have been prioritizing components that must be in the first release rather than completing everything necessarily in the most efficient order, in the anticipation of getting a fun game out there "as soon as possible."

To speed things up even more I would ideally be working with an artist and composer right now to get more work done in parallel, but I'd rather wait until there's less pressure to work on the core game, so that is pushing things back a bit.

Within the next few weeks I should revisit the long term plan and have a clearer picture. Too many other things have been keeping me from working... and for yet another week next month I'll be away from development as well. So annoying!

And then there's the business side of things which I haven't really touched yet :/

Sure takes a lot of work to make an epic video game. Who would've thought?

[Kyzrati]

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

[Cross-posted from the devblog here--follow link for better formatting and light-on-dark style.]

Inventories are almost a staple component of any roguelike, and as such there is usually some amount of inventory management required to play them. Deciding what to carry for contingencies is an important part of roguelike strategy (plus it's fun! ...or cause to kick yourself later). For these decisions to be meaningful, games almost always place some kind of limit on inventory space. It might be a design-imposed static value (52, 26, or less), or derived from strength etc.

Cogmind has an inventory system, too, but at any point in the game it's the player who decides how important a role they want the inventory to play.

How is that possible?

Dynamic Inventory Size
Cogmind has a very small base inventory size--only four slots, meaning you can only carry a maximum four extra items/parts. Relatively tiny by roguelike standards, but you can very well play through the game with this number.

Should you want the ability to carry more parts, you can control the size of your inventory by attaching storage modules of various weights/capacities. Thus these non-permanent expansions to your inventory come at the cost of utility slots that could be used to attach usable parts. Doing this essentially trades an amount of "immediately usable part" space for even more parts that are not immediately usable.

Base inventory size (left) vs. an inventory taking advantage of a single medium storage unit.

Inventory size varies greatly, from four items to dozens of items, based on how much extra storage capacity you want (and can fit). And in addition to play style considerations, as with any loadout in Cogmind the amount of inventory space can also be quickly changed to adapt to new situations, like significantly expanding capacity to carry along an entire stockpile of armor plating before an expected dangerous confrontation.

Aside from the temporary nature of storage expansions (like any other part you can also unwillingly lose a storage module when it's destroyed), the most unique aspect of Cogmind's inventory system is that it's not controlled indirectly via some other stat (e.g. strength) that has a long-term impact on a character and also affects other aspects of their abilities. The trade-offs are both non-permanent and immediately transparent. "Right now do I want to increase my inventory size by four, or attach another type of active sensor?"

To a (very) limited extent, Cogmind's inventory also takes volume into account. In the 7DRL prototype all parts were equal in size (one slot), while now we may have very large parts that occupy two or more slots. I wouldn't want to go to far with this system and risk overcomplicating inventory management and item comparability, so it applies only to a small number of special parts. It's still nice to have that option for flexibility in item design. Without it some of the amazing parts in the game wouldn't be feasible since the player could potentially attach too many of them. (See more about large parts and how they look in your inventory in this old post.)

As for storage modules themselves, I opted to keep them all the same "size" (one slot) regardless of their capacity, instead differentiating them only by weight. This is to keep the system simple. Large storage modules are themselves much heavier--the weight of contained items is not taken into account, another abstraction of unnecessary detail.

As mentioned earlier, depending on your strategy it's technically not even necessary to increase your inventory size. You start with a fair number of usable attachment slots (7), and that number can eventually rise pretty high (26!). In fact, before long you may not even need all your slots for active parts, leaving them free for occasional use as makeshift "inventory space." The caveat: parts can only be attached in their proper slot type whereas inventory space accepts any item.

The Purpose of Inventory
Cogmind's lack of consumables (read more about that design feature here) means you aren't expected to be hoarding a lot of single-use items for contingencies, which is one reason the game can get away with this highly flexible inventory design.

So what is the inventory for, then?

If you've played the prototype, you'll know that in certain encounters it's likely you'll lose more than a few parts that will need replacing. Your inventory is a good source of those parts--you'll often find duplicates in stockpiles that can be carried around as spares. It's also for storing alternate types of weapons/utilities/propulsion that you don't have enough slots to attach.

However, this doesn't imply you absolutely must have a large inventory. Sticking with a smaller inventory is perfectly possible, and results in an even more dynamic game since you're forced to use what you find locally rather than what you're lugging around (there is plenty of scrap to be found after a battle). It also means you'll be slightly more prepared to immediately deal with different situations since you'll have more useful parts attached at once (no slots occupied by storage). You'll also weigh less, especially important for hover/flight propulsion.

So keeping your inventory small is a strategic choice.

There is one other factor to consider along with inventory size that you won't find in most other roguelikes: attaching parts from the inventory has several associated costs (more than simply time). Attaching a part also consumes energy, which is generated free by power sources and usually not an issue, though it can be annoying when you're in the middle of a fight and need to attach a new power source which may require shutting down active utilities and waiting for backup power to slowly recharge (because the battle already drew down too much energy). More importantly it consumes matter, a (semi-)finite resource. This puts a hard limit on the frequency with which you can swap out parts until you acquire more matter, usually by salvaging other robots.

Thus having a huge inventory doesn't always mean you can effectively use it all, as it's tied in to resource management. Related strategy tip: Even though it does take time to attach/detach parts, sometimes doing so while under fire is a good idea, and not too dangerous since Cogmind is nowhere close to a one/few-hits-and-you-die kind of game--taking some extra damage is not a huge deal. Attaching a part during combat will restore or provide extra functionality while also adding extra protection.

Forcing Decisions
In most roguelikes the design includes some gray area that offers ways to circumvent inventory limits. Games with persistent maps may allow the player to create a so-called "stash" where they can store items for later retrieval, or simply return to a previous area to scavenge for items left behind.

Neither of these is possible in Cogmind--you pretty much have to carry everything you may want to use later.

You can't revisit previous maps (a feature to be explored in a future post), and anything left lying around will be cleaned up by recycler bots.

Recycler arriving to clean up a little pile of parts I left on the ground.

The only exceptions to recycler cleanup are intentional stockpiles placed on a map, but these are less reliably useful than gear known to drop from specific robots. You can get specific items by salvaging robots known to use them, but if you want them you're going to have to take them with you.

In the 7DRL you could technically create a stash and come back to it as long as you remained on the same map and destroyed all the recyclers first. That strategy no longer works on most maps because new maintenance bots are dispatched to replace any that have gone missing.

Another different aspect of the new recyclers is that they no longer simply wander around carrying whatever junk they happened to pick up (you could originally chase them down and take them out to get parts back)--once their inventory is full they'll actually take the parts to recycling stations and convert them to matter! (You can retrieve this matter from the station, unless it's already reached a quota, at which point it will be transferred away.)

Altogether the system is designed to force inventory decisions. As a side effect, stash-free design contributes to the "eliminate grinding" philosophy.

That's not to say there are absolutely no external alternatives to expanding inventory size, though other methods aren't necessarily as reliable. The first which comes to mind are potential helpers--hacked haulers can carry stuff for you, but I'm not yet sure how effective this will be yet, as I haven't tested it in true play. You can also remember existing stockpile locations (or hack to find them), since those won't move. Stockpiles are like "randomized game-specified stashes," but too much backtracking can be dangerous and wasteful (more so later in the game).

[Aseaheru]

Well, I cant wait to try this out and start going insane...
Any idea what it will cost?

[Kyzrati]

Very early versions will probably go for $10, and if I can get away with it I'll probably raise the price to $15 later on to put it on par with other indie games of similar quality and, you know, so when it's on sale it's back around $10 again

[Kyzrati]

By the way, Indie of the Year 2014 voting is currently underway at IndieDB, so if you like what we're doing with Cogmind, please vote for it! More exposure is better for the game!

[DoomOnion]

I think you can easily do 15$, considering the dev time you put in this...

[Kyzrati]

I think you can easily do 15$, considering the dev time you put in this...

Yeah, that and overall costs are pretty high, though unfortunately in this industry the consumer's idea of "the right price" is not based on dev time or input at all, and it's getting lower and lower these days :/

Regular roguelike players will see the value pretty quickly, but it could be a harder sell for the average gamer. Still waiting to see the general response from that crowd, which will pretty much make or break the game (financially) in the long term. Sprites and a good trailer will be determining factors there.

At least it's not a mobile game where it would have to be $0.99 and/or have IAP. Ha! Imagine Cogmind with the option to buy matter or parts in between map levels for a few cents

[Retropunch]

I'd easily pay $15 (and a whole lot more!) but sadly, I think you're up against the graphical issue that's going to be off-putting to many.

My advice would be to send it to a whole lot LP'ers once it's ready, as well as (as you mentioned) a good trailer. I'd also try to do a few interviews and stuff, it's frustrating to see devs make a great game and then largely ignore the marketing side of it and then just try to plug it last minute.

[Kyzrati]

Yep, certainly not waiting until the last minute. This is part of why I have an ongoing blog--there are already a lot of people who know about and are interested in the game. More mass media marketing efforts will be forthcoming once the game is ready for that stage. It will go to LP'ers and lots of other places.

Overall it's kind of an experiment to see just how good a reception there is among the general gaming population for something like this, since no one's really tried it before. The tileset will make it an easier sell, but the style will still be unique, and at least attract more eyeballs for that reason.

[puke]

With the massive popularity of pixelart -- not just among old farts wallowing in nostalgia, but also with younger gamers -- combined with the overall detail and quality of the art in Cogmind, I think it will not be an issue.

Especially how modern the interface is, how much feedback there is in the sound and animation and contextual information, as well as the overall consistency of experience... essentially it is a fully featured modern UI that just happens to be in ASCII. 

I don't think it will be a barrier to entry at all.  And if it is, it should be more than offset by how many people are drawn in by the novelty.  I expect it will be considered an "art game" to some extent, similar to things like Osmos, Eufloria, flOw, and Antichamber.

[Kyzrati]

it should be more than offset by how many people are drawn in by the novelty.  I expect it will be considered an "art game" to some extent, similar to things like Osmos, Eufloria, flOw, and Antichamber.

I both believe and hope that you might be right.

[Aseaheru]

So, what requirements does a person have to meet to be considered as a LPer to you?