Cogmind's 11th annual review is available over on the dev blog, summarizing a year of massive updates on both the interface and content side. We got larger fonts, map zooming, multiple UI layouts, a whole new faction and two new maps, with much more to come just around the corner.

Inside you'll also find some dev stats and a selection of community content from art to popular videos and streams.

The upcoming Beta 15 is already a significant update in its current state and shaping up to be a great release for players old and new alike!

THE UFD HAS ARRIVED. A whole new faction introducing new robot classes, mechanics, and a huge collection of lore and dialogue across many dozens of new encounters. This expansion includes 83 new items for you to find, salvage, steal, fabricate, or piece together, most featuring new mechanics and thereby further enhancing your existing build ideas or enabling a range of fresh alternatives.

Beta 14 comes a little later than planned, essentially since this release is bigger than planned, having added about 7 weeks of work on extra features beyond what I'd set out to do as described in Cogmind Vision 2025, where you can still read about yet more coming releases.

The biggest chunk of that extra time can be attributed to yet another architectural overhaul, but this time it wasn't the interface like we got with map zooming and multiple UI layout options in Beta 13. No, this time it was data architecture, and I'm pretty sure you'll notice the results when you start up the game and you're in almost immediately, with any potentially slow-loading maps on some machines also being that much faster to enter. RAM use has also been cut down significantly. Not that these were serious issues before, but saving on resources and time is always welcome :D

Funny enough, despite the massive content expansion, Cogmind's disk size has actually decreased in Beta 14 due to the optimized data formats. Just so much content is being added that even if it was within acceptable loading speeds in prior versions, I can imagine that with Beta 14 and going forward it was going to get increasingly annoying (also for me during development xD), so it was finally about time to address that part of the architecture.

Let's take a look at this release!




The raw changelog isn't quite as long as some of the other major releases on an item-by-item basis, but this is actually the largest single update in many years as far as content goes, and as usual the many new gameplay elements are not explicitly listed below, instead relegated to being numbers and waiting for you to discover them ;)

Cogmind Beta 14 "United Federation of Derelicts" (240806) changelog (excerpt):

• NEW: Branch map "Scraptown"
  
• NEW: 83 new items (most employing new mechanics)
  
• NEW: 50+ new encounters
  
• NEW: 11 new Derelict robot classes, many with new AI
  
• NEW: 16 new robot variants
  
• NEW: 8 new robot tiles
  
• NEW: Hundreds more lore entries covering new factions, technology, and history
  
• NEW: Optimized preprocessed data loading allows Cogmind.exe to start almost instantly, plus faster map generation on entry
  
• NEW: Deferred audio loading system, allowing faster startup and significantly cutting RAM use (deactivate via advanced.cfg: config.deferredAudioLoading)

• NEW: 4 new unique NPCs
  
• NEW: 4 new unauthorized hacks
  
• NEW: 11 more unique manual robot hacks
  
• NEW: 62 new sound effects (total = 1258)
  
• NEW: Rebuilt and expanded Recycling
  
• NEW: Scrap Engine relocated to its proper new home (rather than freely given at entrance to Recycling), and comes with in-theme instruction manual
  
• MOD: The large-scale -2/Research event has more repercussions, including extra spillover and additional patrols on some later maps

• NEW: If no auto-replace target found for attaching ground item ('a'/LMB), repeat command to open manual swap-from-ground menu
  
• NEW: Left-click on parts list autopair markers to swap back (equivalent to '/'+a~z+y or Ctrl-RMB)
  
• NEW: LMB on self while standing on item with full inventory capable of autoreplacing worse items, matching 'g' key behavior
  
• NEW: Gameover screen requires delayed confirmation to Reset or Quit if have a loadable save state in Adventurer/Explorer mode
  
• NEW: Tile/ASCII for robots currently affected by ignore_targets darkened, as if disarmed
  
• NEW: Separate state indicator and context help in info window for "fragile" destroy-on-removal parts, overrides ACTIVE/INACTIVE
  
• NEW: If no RIF or 0b10 Alert Chip, HUD Location also reports high/max security and sterilization status in those cases
  
• MOD: Zionite Depthwide Sectors intel targets use dynamic naming scheme based on actual depth

• NEW: Attacker accuracy reduced by [system corruption]/X% (X = 4 for Cogmind, 8 for others)
  
• NEW: Cryofiber also doubles cooling effect of all active Heat Sinks
  
• NEW: Hacking Drone capable of accessing Cave Seal Controls
  
• NEW: Combat AI groups may sometimes be more aggressive around bottlenecks higher in the Complex
  
• MOD: Dismantling machines via Plasma Cutter increases alert as normal
  
• MOD: Army Drones no longer capable of being armed with a launcher
  
• MOD: Hpw/Lrn. Tractor Beams rating increased
  
• MOD: System Restoration Modules and Purifiers now destroyed on removal (fragile)
  
• MOD: Reaction Control Systems apply full benefits to legs
  
• MOD: Increased fabrication counts for some NC bots
  
• MOD: Increased fabrication count of some non-prototype parts
  
• MOD: Heavy Door and Blast Door melee resistances increased from 34% to 50%
  
• MOD: Reinforced Barrier resistances increased to match Heavy Doors
  
• MOD: LC Capacitor area more accessible

• NEW: Multitile robots can push single-tile robots out of the way
  
• NEW: Multitile robots capable of crushing other robots under some circumstances
  
• NEW: Multitile followers try to keep their distance to better stay out of the way
  
• NEW: Multitile controllable allies with a STAY command attempt to move away if approached
  
• NEW: Some larger robots capable of smashing through obstacles
  
• NEW: On entering new map with multitile followers, walls and doors near entrance are smashed

• NEW: Added examples to effect descriptions for all utilities based on value ratios
  
• NEW: Machine hacking tutorial context messages also show in shell console so immediately visible even in modal UI layouts
  
• MOD: Updated context help for item Stability/Burnout/Siege stats to explicitly indicate how to apply relevant special modes when applicable

• NEW: Many new scoresheet history log entries
  
• NEW: Scoresheet records peak and average build rating in each map, and rating on entrance
  
• NEW: Bonus points for besting VL-GR5 in competition

• FIX: Lightning Scan Cloak level increased from 4 to 5, to match analysis [R-26 Lightspeed]
  
• FIX: Crash during special assimilation win ending animation when using new modal layout with inventory closed [necris81, mrjoebobfred, CaptainWinky]

Extended Beta 14 changelog including additional categorized minor details for advanced players...

>>>: CONTENT

• NEW: Additional behaviors from major NPCs during W/R attack event
  
• NEW: 3 new build type descriptors
  
• MOD: Pre-existing patrols on new maps start with more realistic spread
  
• MOD: Imprinter no longer remains in Zion forever if area comes under attack
  
• MOD: Clippyterm no longer sometimes appears empty
  
• MOD: Block/half block glyphs in size 14 ASCII map font now touch cell edges
  
• MOD: Increased minimum resolution from 600px to 720px in system requirements

>>>: QOL / UI

• NEW: Attaching a part in a temporary slot requires confirmation
  
• NEW: Adjust the distance of each use of keyboard-based map view shifting (advanced.cfg: mapViewShiftJumpDistance, new default is 15 instead of 10)
  
• NEW: Holding Ctrl-Alt in keyboard examine/targeting mode highlights path to cursor
  
• NEW: "Swapping" a part into an empty temporary slot via the part-based swap menu now possible
  
• NEW: Drag-drop attachment of parts into a temporary slot allowed if target slot is empty
  
• NEW: Special ALERT announcement if only one usable Garrison Access point remaining in Access
  
• NEW: System Corruption immunity status reflected directly in HUD
  
• NEW: RIF ability count included within HUD button itself
  
• NEW: Keyboard mode also shows RIF status as HUD text
  
• NEW: Option to always hide part category headers in modal UI layouts, regardless of current slot count (advanced.cfg: alwaysCondenseSlotTypeHeaders)
  
• NEW: Option to require confirmation when manually dropping inventory item onto another item (advanced.cfg: warnOnInventoryItemDropOnItem)
  
• NEW: Option to shift hue when visualizing longer paths to reflect the distance (advanced.cfg: dynamicPathDistanceHue)
  
• NEW: Option to display percent integrity remaining instead of raw values alongside map item labels (advanced.cfg: itemLabelIntegrityPercent)
  
• MOD: Attaching parts prioritizes use of permanent slots over temporary slots if both are present, regardless of listed order
  
• MOD: Exiting examine/targeting modes no longer automatically recenters on Cogmind (restore functionality via advanced.cfg: exitTargetingCentersCogmind)
  
• MOD: Explicitly entering keyboard examine mode rather than targeting mode while view following allied drone no longer recenters on Cogmind
  
• MOD: Removed itemLabelAddUnidentifiedSize advanced option, behavior now automatic in Tactical HUD mode
  
• MOD: Removed useless swap all autopairs command (Shift-Alt-w)
  
• MOD: EX-Prototypes Database terminal moved
  
• MOD: Chain reaction explosion data in power source descriptions toggled in real time alongside Tactical HUD, rather than requiring a restart
  
• MOD: Temporary Scrap Engine content list shifted below on-map messages in modal UI layout
  
• MOD: Temporary Scrap Engine content list hidden while any extended on-map combat logs visible
  
• MOD: Manual robot hacking input console and any known manual codes always both appear to right of robot hack list

>>>: MECHANICS / ITEMS

• NEW: Transmission Jammer effect description explicitly indicates ability to indirectly jam via drones, Watcher Feeds, etc
  
• NEW: Active Sensor Suite effect description explicitly indicates immunity to all scrambling and cloaking effects
  
• NEW: Core Physics Calibrator more explicitly lists late-game effect restriction
  
• NEW: Engineers have additional task type
  
• NEW: Melee attacks made with any momentum benefiting from speed bonus while using overloaded propulsion can cause burnout as moving normally
  
• MOD: Active Sensor Suite tile switched from Processor to Device
  
• MOD: Engineers no longer "form the Earth" and wait for Tunnelers to clear areas targeted for excavation if already cleared via destructive means
  
• MOD: Engineers might wait longer to effect some types of repairs
  
• MOD: Manually triggering friendly AOE traps applies alert and aggro as a normal attack
  
• MOD: Several special outlier effects that apply corruption now pass through normal defenses against it, for consistency

>>>: MULTITILE ROBOTS

• MOD: Multitile robots can better avoid known hostile traps in certain situations
  
• MOD: AI spotting of/by multitile robots more accurate

>>>: HELP

• NEW: Tutorial message regarding manual ground swap feature when slots full and no auto-replace options
  
• NEW: Tutorial message regarding meaning and use of markers that appear next to autopaired attached parts in Tactical HUD mode
  
• NEW: Tutorial message on first using the keyboard mode hotkey (F2) which hides the mouse cursor, primarily meant as a warning
  
• NEW: "Cooling Resolution" section in manual detailing turnwise heat processes for min-maxers, given the increasing number of cooling options
  
• NEW: Manual notes about Launchers indicate some portions of AOE damage may be capable of passing through walls under the right conditions

>>>: SCORESHEET / DATA

• MOD: "Inspector Gadget" achievement description updated to explicitly indicate disqualification due to gaining non-utility slots via other means
  
• MOD: "Straight Shot" achievement description updated to explicitly indicate Garrisons/Waste/DSF okay
  
• MOD: "Specialist"-type achievement descriptions explicitly state that damage calculations are across an entire run

>>>: MISC

• NEW: All patron supporter names registered since Beta 13 added to in-game list (see Credits menu)
  
• NEW: All patron item-attribution names registered since Beta 13 added to the item collection gallery
  
• NEW: All Alpha supporter names registered since Beta 13 added to in-game list (see Credits menu)

For the complete changelog including all bug fixes, see the latest iteration packaged with the game or online here.

Saves from earlier versions are incompatible with Beta 14, but even if you're on Steam and Cogmind automatically updates, Beta 13 is still available via its own legacy branch and you can roll back to finish a run in progress first if you like. Cogmind will remind you which branch to use if it finds an old save, and your old save won't be deleted or affected by the update.


I won't be going into any details to avoid spoiling the experience, though I will provide a little background and direction here to help get you started.

There is a lot to discover in Beta 14, much of it tied to the new faction, and you can reach their primary location via Recycling, which is itself accessible via two different routes, either Storage or the Subcaves. The latter option is generally for more advanced players, but there are other specific (new) advantages to going that route as well. (As described before, Subcaves, Scraptown, and a new future map-to-come are all part of the same UFD arc on which the current expansion is focused--they're all tied together on some level.)

Access from the Storage direction is locked behind a door that requires either a manual code you've learned in another run from a particular major NPC who told you as much (easiest way), or cutting a hole with a Plasma Cutter, or melting your way through with an engine bomb, or maybe you've found one of the items that will automatically hack nearby doors for you. 01-MTF will also be happy to help if he shows up.

Across multiple trips you'll learn more about the UFD's history and where they're from, which will also help explain why they are where they are, a bit out of the way. On repeated visits you'll also find that the contents can vary significantly--there are a lot of possibilities, while at the same time offering some guaranteed encounters you can take advantage of if you plan for them, once you know what they are.

If you have any questions or need help, or just want to share, feel free to drop by the Discord server since that's where most of the active players hang out, as well as where I am every day most of the day, and is also where most Cogmind streaming takes place.



In a general departure from other potential allied factions, you'll find there are often some items found locally which you must be hostile to obtain, though some of these are incredibly rewarding in and of themselves (alongside some potential drawbacks later, for being hostile). The overall balance and considerations regarding these particular items will be changing somewhat in Beta 15, so don't worry about those too much yet, although patrons testing out the prerelease have been more than happy to murder everyone to get everything that they want xD (it's not exactly easy, but if well-prepared yeah you can do it...)

But the most important thing to know about Scraptown and the UFD is that there is more to come. In order to let you play with this substantial update rather than sit on all of it until the entire expansion is complete, as previously announced the final part of the UFD experience will be coming in Beta 15, including a new ending and more outlying and/or UFD-related late-game content. As is their main plot line has not been included, since it would be weird to have that introduced but not be able to see it through, so for now you can use the opportunity to get acquainted with them and take advantage of all the new items and other features while I continue working on that. In Beta 15 there will be another NPC to help fill you in on long-term goals, but until then if you do join them make sure to read their central terminals, in particular about Project Fedlink and related. (I've already finished a chunk of Beta 15 content, by necessity as it is of course tightly coupled with Beta 14. A sizeable portion of Beta 14 content itself was actually completed last year, long before Beta 13 was even released :P So this version has been in production for much of the last year.)

In the meantime there is a lot to get acquainted with, considering not only all the new mechanics but also the new NPCs and lore. This single release increases the total lore by 52% (purely counting by the number of entries which are added to your collection on discovery), and the number of items by 8% (up to 1,156 collectible/usable components now) so those out there adding to their collections will have plenty more to uncover.

If you do want some content spoilers, late last year I shared a series of articles starting with this one about Cogmind's "post-balance" item expansion which provides some context for the wild new mechanics we're getting and shares some specific examples along with their design. Those things and many many more are all accessible in game now.

For a general video introduction to Scraptown and the UFD, I've been streaming some of my own playtest runs in recent weeks, starting with the first here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MQDS2bHvKQ

Not really the best tight introduction, just a long stream recording (followed by others), but if you're interested it's there :)

In a related development, the Scrap Engine introduced back in Beta 12, which enables a very different play style and since then has just been given for free at the entrance to Recycling, now lives in its proper home, which won't take long to find if you are visiting that same map with the new destination in mind. Also you'll probably have somewhat fewer questions about how it works, because it now comes with a complete in-game, in-theme manual, as planned :)

Good luck, scrapper!




Beta 14 isn't just about content, as always there's a fair share of QoL goodness to streamline various parts of the experience or expand the number of optional interface customizations.

One of the most desirable features is a way to manually swap a part on the ground directly with an attached part, when the autoswap behavior doesn't find any obvious swaps to make, thereby allowing you to swap in a completely different part type from the ground if needed. Normally you would have to first have to remove an attached part, or at least add the desired part to your inventory in order to perform such a swap, but now you can perform a manual replacement by simply repeating the attach command ('a'/LMB) a second time (i.e. after the autoswap system reports no suitable targets) in order to chose the part to replace, like so:



Another new feature sure to be of use for mouse users is the ability to swap pairs of attached and inventory parts back and forth by clicking on the ticks to the left of attached parts, which are there to indicate you are still in possession of whatever part was in that slot before:



As you can see, once the cursor is held over the tick/button for a moment, it will also pop up all the names of existing valid pairs.

(Keyboard users have quick access to the reswap feature as usual via the normal swap functionality and 'Y'.)

Adventurer/Explorer mode players who have an existing usable save state will now be shown a reminder and prompted for confirmation if attempting to restart or quit on the game over screen, which should help avoid accidentally restarting in such a scenario:



We now have a dedicated indicator in the part info window (as well as corresponding context help if you click on it, as usual) for those which are destroyed on removal, the term for which is FRAGILE. Originally this behavior was specific to certain part types, Processors and by extension Hackware, but over the years for balance reasons this behavior has been extended to a number of other special parts, so we ideally need to know which those are before attaching them, mainly for those of you encountering them for the first time. Sample:



The main HUD also has a few siutuational updates such as reflecting corruption immunity status if applicable, and a change in the RIF button to include the number of abilities known (adds useful information to screenshots!):



That button doesn't normally display in keyboard mode, which accesses RIF info via the spacebar menu, but in order to display the RIF ability count it will now report the same information as non-interactive text.

Also useful to know for screenshots (rather than something you'll likely forget is happening...), the HUD also shows high/max security or sterilization if any are applicable. This is not something you need RIF to know, since it's announced--not the same thing as precise alert level at all times, which you would need to learn via other means.



Beta 13 and its new modal UI layouts were made possible in part through a combination of being able to hide the inventory and even shrink the parts list by removing type headers to keep the inventory visible through a greater number of depths. But some players reportedly really liked having no part type headers at all, even when removing them was not necessary to save space, so by request I've added a new advanced.cfg feature "alwaysCondenseSlotTypeHeaders" to always hide those regardless of slot count. For example this is what it would look like upon just starting a new run with the initial 7 slots:



Another new option (itemLabelIntegrityPercent) implemented by request replaces raw integrity values displayed alongside map item labels with percent integrity values:



Personally I don't think this is as useful raw numbers, since the general integrity percent is already reflected in the label color, but some apparently prefer it regardless. Try it out if you're in that boat!

This next one I mainly implemented for fun one day, plus it looks cool and technically can help visualize more information at a glance, but the new "dynamicPathDistanceHue" option displays paths with shifting color based on distance from your position to the destination:



That's the path shown when moving the cursor around (although above brightened by holding Ctrl-Alt, which is how you could always highlight the path for better temporary visibility). Keyboard players normally won't see it, but can also now display a path to their examine/targeting cursor by holding Ctrl-Alt (and technically path there via the spacebar menu!).

If you're a Scrap Engine user also making use of the new modal UI layouts, you'll be happy to know that the content list will be shifted under active messages rather than letting them obscure it, in case you need that info at the same time:




It's finally here: For several major updates now I've wanted to include a dedicated pass over multitile robot behavior, especially when allied with you, since having them follow standard ally behavior could be problematic in many cases, to say the least. Having completed the desired enhancements I'm happy to announce that the big guys in Beta 14 are much more enjoyable to partner with!

For pathfinding purposes they are not nearly as limited as before, and are capable of smart behaviors like spreading out and actively trying to stay out of your way. Here you can see a test group of multitile allies following in a sort of "caravan" formation to avoid bunching up:



They've also got some new complementary abilities to facilitate pathing, such as pushing smaller/regular-sized bots out of the way, as in this demo:



This and related changes do, however, mean that hostile multitile robots are going to be that much scarier if they discover your presence, so look out for that! Finally proper nightmarish Behemoth encounters :D

Normally for releases and/or progress updates I'll have a number of articles I've written to point to for more details, but this time I've been pouring the entirety of recent months directly into development (not to mention working mostly on things I don't want to spoil by writing about them in advance :P), so there isn't so much of that this time. However with Beta 14 released there are definitely some topics I'd like to cover, including for example a sequel to my older piece on Developing Multitile Creatures in Roguelikes, this time looking at advances made in that area to improve the experience. For now, if you'd like to read a bit more about the development of multitile bots and some other newer features, I do have one post in particular on Patreon which shared related updates along with some more info and samples earlier this year when I was working on it (now public): The Features [Temporarily] Left Behind But Not Forgotten.


Not a lot of balance changes this time around, though there are a few particularly noteworthy ones you'll want to be aware of.

Corruption has a negative effect on accuracy (-corruption/4%), giving it another persistent drawback at higher levels and therefore a real reason to seriously consider not letting it get that high. Many players/some builds don't necessarily care even if it's at 50%+, but that will be a bit more problematic now since it will often cancel out some of your targeting bonuses. To some extent this also works to your advantage if using EM to attack targets, other bots being more susceptible to corruption to begin with, meaning even just one or two attacks will already start making it harder for them to accurately retaliate. However bots other than Cogmind instead use X/8% for their formula since they can gain corruption so easily (good news for your allies, at least).

Reaction Control Systems now providing their full benefits to legs means you probably want to consider them as a serious slot contender in your melee leg builds.

Cryofiber, the niche supplementary cooling option, got an outright buff via synergy with Heat Sinks, significantly increasing their cooling potential. You can put together your own multislot cooling system with greater functionality, and Heat Sinks are easy to come by... It's cool now! So try to break the habit of ignoring it :)

The most generally impactful balance adjustment is an update to resistances of heavy doors and reinforced barriers. It was always kinda weird that strong doors were more easily circumvented by going through the surrounding walls instead, not to mention said walls and doors had become easier to get through given the greater and greater collection of more powerful tools (basically weapons), so those walls and doors now have matching resistances, and are no longer comparatively weaker to melee weapons. Melee weapons do still do more damage than projectile weapons, in particular impact weapons and high momentum providing an alternative method of accessing some areas, though this change also solidifies the Plasma Cutter's position as a useful tool.

---

And that's today's summary heralding the curious arrival of the United Federation of Derelicts! As mentioned, work on Beta 15 has already begun, though no idea when that will go out. We'll be exploring yet another new map, this one promising some serious action, and of course the aforementioned extended UFD features.

In the near term we'll have Beta 13 player stats to examine, no doubt interesting given the influx of new players this year following the combined effect of Cogmind adding zooming/large text layouts and the video by DoshDoshington.



You can go meet this fellow today. Play nice :)

Not long after the release (and seventh and final patch) of our latest major new version, Beta 13 "Zoom All The Things", I'd like to do something I've never done here before: talk more about the future. This is only something I tend to do with frequent players on Discord, or patrons, and even then only in the broadest strokes or occasional disjointed details since anything is subject to change and I don't want to accidentally mislead anyone or create too much unnecessary hype for things that have no specific timeline. But in my own notes I do always have a fairly clear plan for the future, if one that sometimes still shifts around according to near-term priorities (for example our latest adventures in map zooming and upscaled UI layouts).

Preferring to write and share information about features that are already completed, for many years now I've subscribed more to a "deliver, then describe" methodology rather than "promise, then deliver." That said, over the years I have indeed made a handful of rather big long-term promises, promises that will come to fruition, and we're coming closer to those points in development, so I figure now is an opportune moment to remind folks what these things entail, fill in some of the blanks, and also bring plenty of newer folks up to speed, those who are not steeped in the decade-plus history of Cogmind development and community interaction :P

Let's go.


(animation by Maiker, depicting a particular special type of bot you may know about)

I started giving a general outline back during my typical annual review, the last one in December (our 10th!), but let me use this opportunity to provide a little more color on that. Of course Beta 13 already took care of the zooming and upscaling that was planned, even extending so far as to take us all the way through the final "Phase 4" stretch, but now that that's out of the way, it's time to get back to serious CONTENT. That means bigger expansions...


This expansion I technically started working on all the way back in 2022 with the extensive Scrap Engine feature which, surprise, is actually not a major part of "Scraptown" after all xD

It was developed as an experiment in semi-controlled randomization of parts to create an assortment of unique and evolving technology, first of all because it could be a fun mechanic (yep, it's neat!), but more pertinently as a potential central theme for Scraptown. It turned out to not be fully suitable, or at least doesn't meet my requirements, so it will live on in its own way as its namesake town features other new things.

As for Scraptown itself, its scope has ballooned significantly (I have a tendency to do that :P), but is now more or less set and is even more than half realized, it's just a case of going through the motions to finish the whole thing.

But I call it an "expansion" because this goes far beyond the original plan years ago of it being just one extra map you might visit to gain some benefits, and is now a whole new story arc for the world of Cogmind spanning three new maps. These maps technically including the recently-released Subcaves which tie into it in several ways, Scraptown itself, and a new late-game Research branch: Protoforge.

While maps are a fundamental unit of expansion, they imply much more since you've gotta have a good reason for those maps to exist! This expansion includes:

• a new major faction and optional alliance
  
• a new major NPC
  
• a number of brand new robot classes (new tiles!)
  
• masses of new lore and dialogue
  
• many dozens of new items, some with wild game-changing mechanics
  
• multiple new large-scale events in which to test your skills
  
• a new ending, our 10th

This is spread over two remaining versions:

• Beta 14 "United Federation of Derelicts"
  
• Beta 15 "0bPrime"

The biggest chunk is actually coming in that next Beta 14 release, in the coming months, I'd like to say June-ish? The latter version shouldn't take too long either, and while timelines tend to depend on how much other than the primary content I try to pack in along the way, at this point I'm trying to put an extra focus on pure content, especially after our significant UI detour with Beta 13. If not for months spent on zooming and upscaling we'd already have Scraptown out by now, but that was a pretty desirable, timely, and successful detour :)

Anyway, you'll also be seeing Beta 15 this year as well.



I promised this expansion would be added to the development queue once we reached 800 Steam reviews, based on the same premise as the Merchants Guild, which I write about below and actually came in an earlier announcement, but in terms of long-term development organization it's better to build this particular expansion first.


I promised the Unchained as a result of Patreon support. One could say that some funds saved from Patreon have been earmarked as what is primarily powering this particular expansion, which over time has now grown to be even more formidable than initially planned (are you sensing a trend here? :P). I continue to work on its design in the meantime, so when the time comes it will be fairly mature and I can hit the ground running with it.

Who, or what, are the Unchained...

Well, the lore-filled 2020 ARG, which touched upon many of the expansion concepts for the first time (and suggests others not mentioned in this post), had this to say about the Unchained, which is still accurate:



They will become a significant overarching mechanic, albeit mainly a potential threat to players who challenge the status quo in Complex 0b10. If you prove you're not some regular Derelict by repeatedly causing more trouble across multiple maps, or even just being more problematic for the Complex in other ways, you may end up with one of these guys hunting you, and they are not your normal enemy. Almost all of them will have special abilities beyond anything possessed by current robots, including new unique AI and behaviors that will add new dimensions of challenge.

And in some cases you won't be able to simply leave a map to escape their pursuit. They don't care about "alert level," they care about finishing the job, and will eventually track you down.

But don't make too many assumptions based on the above description just yet--these encounters will be varied and challenging, but fair and balanced. Of course some players will never even see them at all. Hone your skills in the meantime to be capable of summoning the wrath of one of these ultimate crazies. Think of them as possible recurring mini-bosses of sorts.

This particular expansion is currently planned to span two versions:

• Beta 16 "Unchained"
  
• Beta 17 "Hexidium"

The first release will include a batch of these new friends to play with, and the second adds yet more unique members to their ranks while enabling you to visit their headquarters for bullets or tea. In the end there won't be just a handful of these guys--while they're powerful and you won't likely see many, or any, in a given run depending on your actions, there will be a wide variety to encounter across numerous runs, most of them adding brand new tech and mechanics.

The Unchained will definitely be worked on this year, and also hopefully completed or at least start to be released this year as well (at the very least on Patreon if they're not ready for prime time). You can already find small bits of lore about them in game--Beta 13 added more, including some that will closely tie into later Unchained-related content.

Patrons tend to be more avid players and many enjoy their punishment, or really the opportunity for extra challenges and therefore potentially even more interesting loot as well, so the Unchained seems a fitting "reward" for them ;) (and of course everyone else gets it as well, since this feature will be integral to the world and updated gameplay balance).


The original promised expansion! This one was always going to be around 1.0, so has sat on the sidelines waiting for that part of the timeline. This promise stemmed from when I said it would be really helpful if we could eventually hit an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam, which would require at least 500 reviews, and although it took us a while to reach that point, once there it has tended to hold for quite a while (maintaining that status does help sales, and therefore means more revenue to sustain development of free content since I always simply reinvest revenue into more development). While we've since occasionally lost that status, many thanks for the good periods where we've had it, and the Merchants will be at your service :D

As for what the Merchants bring to Cogmind, they are probably the most mysterious of the future factions, and for that reason likely the most misunderstood. Although you can already find a few vague references to them in the world, they will not quite be the sort of merchants you have come to expect from other roguelikes.

More specifically though, like the Unchained their addition will involve a new map, and aligning yourself with them for a different sort of run is also a distinct possibility (okay, yeah you'll be able to do that). Beyond a single primary map, their associated overarching mechanics will also likely involve other new sub-map areas, depending on the needs of their final implementation.

I still have to test out one of the potential important new gameplay mechanics I'd like them to take extensive advantage of, but there's still time to slip that in somewhere considering that I don't see development on Merchants beginning until next year (2025).




I'm not yet sure where 1.0 fits in between all these, but it's, uh... somewhere out there! It could come at any time, though seeing as each of these expansions will be integrated throughout the normal world and gameplay, and all of them have far-reaching impacts, maybe it doesn't come until after all of them are complete?

To reiterate, as is Cogmind is already a very complete experience and has been since it came to Steam in 2017,
with hundreds of hours of content for those who want to dive further and deeper. Despite the size of these future expansions, there will be no DLC or any extra charge--everything is included in the price at which you get it now, though additional support via Patreon is very much appreciated and helps continue to expand the world with yet more options and experiences.

There technically aren't any more significant requirements left before I'd be happy to officially call Cogmind "1.0."
One of my plans in that regard, from years ago, was to at least run new experiments with alternative UI layouts before that milestone, but not only are said experiments now done, we've already got them fully implemented in Beta 13.

So in terms of regular content and features we're definitely set, although one more thing we do need before that release can happen is at least one more major batch of achievements, there being hundreds of great new possibilities related to content added since the first 256 achievements in... 2018 (!). I've got a looooong list, so maybe slip it in after Beta 15? Maybe even make it its own release, since it'll be a lot (thereby pushing back subsequent version numbers, though not adding a significant delay--the new batch could probably be completed with 2-3 weeks of dedicated work). If I did slip that in we'd have to have another batch for 1.0, related to content added in subsequent versions.

Cogmind has been out so long that the percentages shown on Steam for such achievements will be even more deceiving (remaining incredibly low... forever, even if a larger portion of the current player base gets it), but that's not meaningful compared to individual players being able to collect them and reflect another aspect of official completion. (The current percentages are already significantly distorted from reality, but Steam's system isn't designed for games that add achievements long after the initial release of the game itself.)


Those are the main expansions to bring us all the way through 2024 and a good part if not all or most of 2025.

I have several other factions and maps planned, but can't promise anything more at this point, since even what's above will take a while to complete, and I can't be sure Cogmind will be funded that far ahead, but promises are promises, so the these things will be delivered regardless!

In summary, my vision for Cogmind in 2025 is that we'll have at least three new factions and four or more new maps, all of which of course entail new mechanics and items, the core of what makes for unique new builds in Cogmind, so expect a yet greater variety of strategic possibilities.

Looking at the "little" picture instead of the big, as usual we'll also continue getting a number of isolated non-theme-specific features, many of which I know will be in high demand, including for example:

• Improved large robot behavior. These guys can be really annoying in a number of situations, but the Polymind event made some technical advances in that area which may help in upcoming endeavors to improve that. This applies to both enemies and allies.
  
• Now that we have map zooming and new UI layouts with reduced grid dimensions, there's a good chance that I'll complete and release the so-called "overmap" feature I experimented with back in 2020
  
• A way to manually replace attached parts with parts from the ground when there's no objective improvement for the automated system to make
  
• More visual indicators and/or a way to access ongoing RIF effects on individual bots

These are the sorts of things on my long list of possibilities which get moved around and picked out for development as time permits. The above are relatively important features I know I'll be working on eventually, but I have a virtually endless list of other interesting features, many of which have been inspired by conversations with or among the community on Discord, or just lower priority optional features that keep getting pushed back as more important features or necessary content are often added nearer to the beginning of The List...

The latest stats show that my current primary todo list is about 450 pages long at 150,000 words. Ha. That's just the primary one, but it is the bulk of where I organize things that could be added, except the latest big project, which is the Scraptown arc and has its own separate set of more specific design docs to explain all the finer details. (The main Scraptown design doc is nearing 20,000 words, and it's not quite finished :P)

DISCLAIMER: I can't predict that no bad unforeseen event will happen to me, as it's not like this is a big company and there are people to pick up the slack, so the general timelines given above are assuming I'm okay :P. That'd be another reason I don't like to talk too much about future timelines--life is fickle like that! Health issues have been a significant headwind for me in some previous years, but I'm very hopeful that this year will be better overall. Now off to continue kicking butt...


One more thing: Also in the news, as usual I reviewed a bunch of good 7DRLs from this year's event in order to share them with followers and provide feedback to other devs, so if you'd like some cool games to play in the meantime, you can check out my review list including summaries, screenshots, and videos as well.




Wait a minute, yet one more thing to tack on here that happened after I drafted the above announcement: DoshDoshington has released a great video titled "Cogmind and the Future of Roguelikes." It's really nice to have someone who is more deeply familiar with Cogmind, and roguelikes in general, able to share it with a wider audience of folks that might very well include many who could also enjoy this sort of game.

While it's a good watch even for any of you already playing, I do recommend it as a faithful summary of the experience if you're looking to let others know about Cogmind and what they might like (or not like!) about it.

There are some big plot spoilers towards the end, but he'll warn you and you can stop if so inclined :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b11EA6XW3w

We have a new Beta 13 patch, this time with Modal layout QoL enhancements, and some more fixes for new issues.

If you recall, back when I planned to release the new layout feature for Beta 13, I wasn't sure if it would be feasible to also release so-called "Phase 4," the even more extreme Modal layout. While I did manage to squeeze it in under the deadline, there wasn't as much time to finalize the best possible version of it, specifically with regard to the top-center "multiconsole" area.

This past week after finishing a bunch of other Cogmind-related work, I've been able to give that area some more love and it's now gotten a redesign more suited to that layout, rather than being hacked together from what was there before :P

As a minor patch, existing Beta 13 saves/runs in progress are fully compatible.

• NEW: 6 new font options at size 16, Terminus/X11 variants and a blocky font, mainly to increase options on Steam Deck (now at 16 styles)
  
• NEW: In Modal UI layout, activating combat log a second time (F8, or LMB on button) opens new modal window (also toggled via keyboard scroll commands -/=)
  
• NEW: Contextual tutorial message about machine/terrain Armor on failing to cause damage
  
• NEW: Scoresheet "Steam" entry in Options section records separate value if using Steam Deck
  
• MOD: Neutron Missile Launcher damage reduced, consistency increased
  
• MOD: Convoy path prediction overlay changed from yellow to red
  
• MOD: Removed lower combat log detail settings, simplified to High and Max
  
• MOD: HOSTILES button moved to bottom right edge of message log window
  
• MOD: Allies/Intel/Extended log window order adjusted in top-center console, corresponding F5/F6/F7 hotkeys updated to match new order
  
• MOD: In Modal UI layout, Allies and Intel window access appear as full-size buttons
  
• MOD: Visual style of mode swap indicator for Extended Log vs Combat Log changed in Modal UI layout
  
• MOD: In Modal UI layout, once Allies/Intel modal window closed, top-center console setting automatically restored to Extended Log or Combat Log
  
• MOD: Advanced option autoOpenNewIntel explicitly not applicable under Modal UI layout
  
• FIX: Opening the new More prompt while examining an item attached to another robot could cause unexpected results [Infomantis]
  
• FIX: Sabotage intel marker for convoy interceptions may be placed inaccurately under certain conditions [ktur]
  
• FIX: Automated shifting of map view when following drone that spots hostiles or other events did not position correctly [lyra]
  
• FIX: Crash on distant overloaded Fabricator destroying self via chain reaction in nearby robot power source while simultaneously short circuiting [arkn]
  
• FIX: [Pay2Buy mode] Recycling Units could still drop backup parts on destruction [Infomantis]
  
• FIX: Pressing ESC erased active item labels and reset filter without restoring other input functions to overlapping controls until normal expiry (again)
  
• FIX: Alternative JSON/protobuffer scoresheet data format always reported zero for Corruption Blocked
  
• FIX: RMB to close full log while cursor over map area may also count as map input
  
• FIX: Some cases of UI state change might leave a button highlighted after cursor left its area

The biggest changes are noticeable in the Modal layout, in which the top menu bar better reflects the behavior in this particular mode, with ALLIES and INTEL opening as modal windows (so they get full-size buttons), and L/C being used to set which type of log appears below that area when action is playing out:



To accommodate this change, all layouts have undergone a few modifications as well, including moving the transient HOSTILES button over to the regular message log side (this makes room for another likely button to appear next to ZOOM in a future version), and reordering the top-center console buttons in general (LAIC -> AILC), meaning their F-key hotkeys have also been shifted to maintain the same order, if you're using those.

An important focus of this patch was to give users of the new Modal layout mouse access to the extended combat log history, which is now achieved by clicking on the combat log button a second time to open that in modal form as well, where it can then be scrolled via the scroll wheel normally as with the other layouts.



As usual, keyboard access (-/=) automatically opens this history as well.

Note that the lower-detail combat log settings having been removed, and renaming of the highest detail from "Full" to "Max" will mean that any folks originally using the latter will want to head into the options menu to set it again.

There are still a handful of small visual issues with the new Beta 13 interface that I haven't been able to track down or reproduce through explicit testing (including for example the possibility of the Modal layout's message log final underline not disappearing properly), but they're on the list for more observation...


After all the Beta 13 post-release work settled down, I finally had the opportunity to put together a stat analysis of player data from the previous release (Beta 12), now that the leaderboards have been reset. I posted that here.



Not long after that, while the spreadsheets were hot I couldn't help also taking a preliminary look at player preferences regarding our major new interface features in Beta 13 (map zooming and upscaled UI layouts). I posted usage graphs and analysis of the figures here.




Cogmind has been technically compatible with the Steam Deck more or less since it came out, though it was marked as "Unsupported" on Steam until just this week when I contacted Valve and had them do an official review in order to change that. The new UI layout options plus zooming should make that a much better experience than it might've been before Beta 13. (Based on feedback so far that is the case.)

As part of today's patch I also added six more font options at size 16, which is the size used by the Steam Deck and some people may prefer one of the newer ones (not sure if they're better or not, since I don't have a Deck to test on and see what they look like on the actual device). Example 16/X11Caps screenshot combining map zooming with the Modal UI layout and under the Steam Deck's resolution (open full size to see proper resolution--1280x800):



Of course anyone on a smaller 720~800px display can also use these new fonts, though it's too bad the Deck has such a low resolution and isn't at least just 10 pixels taller, which would put it in range of a nice font/tile size increase across the board!

Anyway, we'll see what folks end up using, and also get a glimpse at just how many are doing that since this patch adds stats for Deck use to the scoreesheet records.


In the near-term I'll be sifting through this year's 7DRLs, now that the jam is over and there's also been a little time for devs to release post-jam fixes. I'll be sharing what I find on my Twitch channel.

And aside from that, with our final Beta 13 patch now out, it's time to dust off the dozens of fresh items and robots I built last year to populate one of the new maps which sits empty and eagerly awaiting its new inhabitants :)

It's finally time! For 1.0? No, of course not (that we hit it back in 2017 is just a poorly kept secret), what I mean is raising the price to better reflect what Cogmind is: hundreds of hours of content and lovingly-crafted roguelike adventure and storytelling. I don't explicitly advertise the worldbuilding's diversity and surprises, since that is best left to discovery, but it's been enough to challenge and entertain some folks for even thousands of hours. (Cogmind's screenshots represent only a small fraction of what you'll really find out there, for the reality you'd have to check out spoiler sections of the community, or some videos/streams.)

And the scope continues to grow.

I've dedicated more than the past decade of my life to full-time development of Cogmind. Just me, since it's not like this could support additional folks--it can only barely cover frugal old me :P. I will hopefully, likely, continue to do so for the next couple years. Content is planned out even beyond that, but who knows if it will still be sustainable by then?

That said, as stated before I've never wanted to declare 1.0 then release all my expansions as DLC. Even though that technically makes a lot of business sense and would be significantly more sustainable, I think it leads to a worse player and community experience overall. Instead, I chose to start a Patreon some years ago to help keep the lights on. Although paling in comparison to what DLC would bring in, that has worked out well enough, so once again a special thanks to all of you patrons!

To the point at hand, Cogmind's price will be going up next month. There's only a relatively small window within which to do this without conflicting with other Steam events, and that period is April, so April it is. The new base price will be set to $24.99, and no don't expect that to mean deeper discounts going forward. The price isn't being raised to allow for greater discounts, it's being raised simply to raise the price :P

Some may question the idea of a price increase during "Early Access," but don't worry, the price will likely go up again (!) later and Cogmind isn't really Early Access, anyway, we're waaaay past that. Yes that label does keep some people from buying in since they're skeptical of anything marked EA, an unfortunate side effect of all the poorly planned or executed projects that don't manage it well. Cogmind could've completely skipped Early Access to begin with, or stop development at any point, and be fine in terms of completion.* (Cogmind was publicly released for over two years before coming to Steam in the first place! The date on the Steam page is not Cogmind's actual release date, though many informational sites will assume and repeat that...) We'll open the gates to those folks eventually, but the next couple themed expansions cover at least four more betas before that's even a consideration. The third still-to-come major expansion could be released before or after that threshold (still undecided), it's essentially just a pure marketing decision when to use the "1.0" label.

*that said, I'm super happy, as I'm sure others are, that we've finally been in development long enough, with enough new QoL and engine features, to support map zooming and full UI upscaling--that was BIG

Some historical metrics, for context:



For more historical info and graphs, you can also check out my annual reviews, one from each year for the past 10 years so far.

As for the next expansion, to focus on an important new location, it has technically already begun in part as a portion of Beta 13, and much more than that was completed last year, but that version detoured off into the map zoom and UI upscaling features arena so that more people could join us on this ongoing journey. With all of the new folks on board now, it's time to get this train steaming into exciting new territory again.

We're soon to increase the number of items in Cogmind by nearly 7%, a nice chunk considering we're already over 1,000, along with new maps, new factions, new abilities, yet another large increase in the number of encounters... the works. It'll be like Cogmind alpha content injections all over again, said in the strongest attempting-to-contain-my-hype tone possible :)



So yeah, in summary, price going up next month, and fun new releases coming, too, but... those not quite next month :P. They won't take forever, though--we'll be seeing somewhat faster releases down the line!

Oh yeah and there's still one more discount coming up later this week, so before the increase in price.


Since even after using an abbreviated version of the Beta 13 release notes we still hit Steam's length limit, I didn't have a chance to append any community stuff to our last announcement, so I'll just do that here...

MrMesh shared this wicked painting of a Cogmind scene--such a lively piece that also captures some great details! (via Roguelikes/Cogmind Discord)



A pair of awesome meme videos also dropped recently, including one titled "The Cogmind Beta 13 Experience" by Youngster (not very spoilery, but fun and nicely done!) and another dubbed "Cogmind Slander" by u/dogawesome, which is a good summary of a lot of Cogmind experiences, and in that sense it contains a lot of spoilers, but probably makes relatively little sense to anyone who hasn't actually played, or moreover played a lot. There's a huge number of lore and content references in there though, for those who can relate ;)

After releasing some patches for Beta 13, I also streamed the late-game portion of a run I had started on my own. It was fairly chaotic as usual, by choice :)

Some map-wide sterilization may have occurred prior to the start of the stream, and we know that in Cogmind destruction often begets ever greater levels of destruction, so yeah, continued remodeling was in the cards for a while.



We later used a hidden spoiler area to switch to 100% stealth for the remainder of the run (okay, except for the times our friends murdered everyone...)

That run was able to temporarily take 6th place since the leaderboards were reset for Beta 13, but has already been pushed down to 10th as more folks finish up their first runs with the new version, and at only 64k will probably not even sit within the top 20 for too long :P

A few days back I put out a first little patch for the huge Beta 13 "Zoom All The Things" release and left a link to the changelog/notes in the main announcement comments (minor things and save-compatible). This time we're back with an even bigger patch with some new QoL features, so I figured I'd combine news of the two with an actual patch announcement here to catch you all up on the latest features.

There were a few little QoL things I really wanted to get out the door for Beta 13 right before release day, but despite working into the wee hours of the morning, there wasn't quite enough time... So instead I've worked into the wee hours of the morning for the entire past week to bring you these two patches xD

• NEW: Popup notification for Options menu settings that require restart/new run to take effect
  
• NEW: Some meta info and events obtained via Terminal access normally visible in Non-modal UI layout message log now available in all layouts via Shell
  
• NEW: Subdwellers and Zionites currently positioned in Twisted Machinery will start blinking out to reveal and emphasize that situation
  
• FIX: Entering examine mode while Cogmind not in view could in some orientations cause temporary cursor positioning issues [biznut, darkwing_terror]
  
• FIX: Options menu list popups could stretch beyond bottom window edge in new modal layouts [zxc]
  
• FIX: New world route became unintended way to acquire certain hidden achievement [KillTheWhales]
  
• FIX: New crash on accessing Security Stations hack on Garrison interior Terminal due to hotfix patch [dr.hermelin]
  
• FIX: Relative Vulnerability visualization temporary name indicator partially obscured in modal layouts

Here you can see our new popup notification in action. I know not everyone will notice the descriptions mentioning restart on a few of the options that require it to take effect, so this will help reinforce that.



We've got some new bots capable of taking advantage of the relatively new capability of moving through so-called "twisted machinery," and since they appear so early in the world, at the time you may not have weapons strong enough to actually hit or hurt them (or realize you need to use them) while they're hiding in said machinery, but you also can't see it since they're obscuring it... so now we've got cause to blink them in this particular situation:



The blinking effect doesn't start until a few seconds after they've come into sight or entered your current map view, in case there is other more important status info you need to know, like whether they've spotted you or not, but otherwise they'll keep doing that while it's relevant.

I also finally bit the bullet and put more "meta" (non-direct terminal shell info) directly in the shell output when machine hacking. This is especially for modal layout users, who can't simultaneously see the message log where this information normally appears. Here's an example of getting an ALERT message mirrored inside the shell:



A number of other message types can appear there as well, including perhaps most importantly any time you prelearn data about future maps! Also applies to hacking feedback effects, and this new look was also extended to our original advanced.cfg botnet notice.

Here's another example with mirrored intel acquisition:



That was the first quick patch--but there's more! This second one went out today.

Again nothing major in here, just cleaning up some of the new features and addressing a handful of small issues, but definitely worth the update if you've been playing the new Beta 13! (it's another automatic update on Steam, just mentioning for the DRM-free folks)

As a minor patch, existing Beta 13 saves/runs in progress are fully compatible.

• NEW: 1 new encounter variant
  
• NEW: Added more cases of machine hacking shell directly confirming content of meta intel originally shown in message log
  
• NEW: Using '-' key in Modal UI layout automatically switches to combat log mode and scrolls it open even if not already in that mode
  
• NEW: Position of window in Windowed mode remains constant during game over screens and font changes
  
• NEW: Option to calculate and display available mass support before reaching next overweight threshold (advanced.cfg: showOverweightMassThresholdRemainder)
  
• MOD: Plasma Cutter's new effect description updated to explicitly indicate it works on blast doors
  
• MOD: Cobblers start producing components earlier
  
• MOD: LMB on inventory scrolling buttons scrolls by page instead of one at a time
  
• MOD: Custom reduced fullscreen dimensions remain within specified limits rather than trying to fill display during game over screens
  
• FIX: System Guards silently retained some old pre-Beta 12 functionality [CaptainWinky]
  
• FIX: Salvaged Cobbler Units could have unusual counter values when first used [CaptainWinky]
  
• FIX: Unique new build type classification applied under too few circumstances [CaptainWinky]
  
• FIX: New layout architecture caused custom window heights greater than default to revert to default for duration of game over screens [Vormithrax]
  
• FIX: New special item dropped under wrong circumstances during particular NPC encounter [doshdoshington, Runia, aoemica]
  
• FIX: Pressing ESC erased active item labels and reset filter type without restoring other input functions to overlapping controls (-/=) until normal expiry
  
• FIX: Under some layouts and circumstances, world map info window close button may not highlight while cursor hovering
  
• FIX: Item info window in 45-row UI layouts did not correctly place corner brackets for handful of parts with "No Image Data"
  
• FIX: [Polymind mode] Taking a Cobbler host resulted in zero matter capacity

Among the new features we have a new advanced.cfg option for those of you who play more overweight builds and want to do a little less mathing: showOverweightMassThresholdRemainder. Setting that will change your overweight indicator from the simple Ox# format to the more esoteric X%Y. This will both make you cooler and also let you know that you've exceeded your mass support X times over and have a surplus of Y mass remaining before you hit the next threshold and get even slower :P (think of that % in there as conceptually like a modulo)

Here you can see it in operation:



While most mouse users scroll the inventory with the wheel, those buttons at the bottom/top of a larger inventory technically also scroll the contents, but in the past only did so one at a time. Those now serve as near page-wise scrolling buttons, which may be more convenient for those who actually want to use them:



For a while now it's bugged me that there seemed to be some issue with completely resetting the subcategory part label system, and sure enough there was! Pressing Escape will now truly and completely reset it, which not many probably noticed before, but there'd be a short duration during which it could affect whether pure keyboard players could access the extended combat log with the '-' key after having recently used the categorical labels. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's the fact that you can specify that you only want to see map labels for certain types of parts by cycling through them, for example only power sources, or propulsion, or matter, etc., instead of everything, which after a big battle can obviously get a little cramped!



(You get these via Tab/Shift-Tab or -/= while showing item labels.)

Tomorrow I'll be doing some Beta 13 streaming of this latest build, but not starting from scratch! We'll pick up in the late game where I left off in a run a started on my own a few days back, after having sterilized a Research map and lucking into a VL-GR5 encounter which is about to start. (Ended up spending a huge amount of time the past few days working on the game again, including some reported issues and also a bunch of these patch contents I listed out while doing my run, so never got a chance to finish it xD)

A couple days after the Beta 13 release, the Leaderboards were also reset so we're starting from scratch again (old runs are archived and still accessible, as usual, with some stat analysis to come).

Update: Stream/run completed, here's the results :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9armPEkp5I

WARNING: Upscaled and zoomable Cogmind has landed :D

Beta 13 is here, and with it comes larger text and the ability to double the map tile size on the fly, including a huge range of supporting QoL features. Yeah there's a new map, new items and some new bots, but our primary focus today is expanding the range of displays suitable for playing Cogmind, and one way to achieve that is to provide multiple new UI layouts capable of squeezing the terminal data from 60 rows down to 45.

Before examining the sizeable changelog as a whole, let's jump right in with demos of our main features!


Cogmind's original full-size layout is still a thing, now dubbed the "Non-modal" UI layout in the Options menu, and it is in this layout that the new map zoom feature is likely the most useful, as you can see here:



That particular image happens to be 1440p, but if you fullscreen it on another resolution (for example 1080p) you'll ultimately get the same effect. (Many layout images in this announcement can be opened to their much larger form.)

But for those of you who really want everything to get bigger, and a new default going forward, we have the new "Semi-modal" UI layout (1080p sample below, see also 1440p and 2160p):



And yep, if you want to you can also even zoom the map in a modal layout, resulting in this (another 1080p sample, here using one of several new fonts: Tamsyn):



Of course, as you can see reducing the number of rows in our terminal also meant shrinking our map view, to which the answer is our third UI layout option: "Modal," in order to see more map by hiding some windows (1080p below, see also 1440p and 2160p):



Also whenever you want it there's "Modal" zoomed, if you must :)



That should give you a pretty good overview of the new sizing options possible in Beta 13, and you'll also find yet more new font styles to choose from, including some typefaces at sizes they were not previously available at. Support is included all the way up to 5K resolutions.

But there's a lot more to Beta 13, as you'll see below...


Let's take a break from the interface for a moment to highlight the fact that Beta 13 adds a new map! And it's down really really low! That means it's accessible, right? Well, in a sense :P

The so-called "Subcaves" are not recommended carefree adventuring territory, and anyone who isn't aware of this area's existence may not even discover it for a little while, since it's slightly hidden away for that reason (also for lore reasons).

The Subcaves are related to more content to come in Beta 14 (really content that was supposed to be released alongside them before before this whole exciting UI diversion), and will thus become more relevant then, but even now, being a whole new map it is indeed where a good chunk of the new Beta 13 stuff can be found. Inside you may meet some friends, and some not-so-friends, and probably also some wtf-subsub-you-die-now. Definitely some weird stuff going on in there, more of the background to which will start coming to light with the upcoming Scraptown debut.


How about those modal UI layouts?! There's actually more to them than just looking at screenshots--you'll want to understand a few related new features as well. Although I've added tutorial messages for the really important stuff, it's worth demonstrating some key points here.

First of all, if you change your UI layout setting in the Options menu, remember you'll need to restart for it to take effect.



On restart, this change also resets your font and calculates a new optimal map size for you, so if you were using an alternative font set you may need to select it again, and some of the styles may be different. Everyone loading up Beta 13 for the first time will automatically find themselves in the Semi-modal layout, our new default.

Aside from the smaller map view, one of the major differences in using these other layouts is that eventually you will be playing with a modal inventory, as in the inventory window is hidden from view, as you can see here in the bottom right:



However, this change doesn't occur until you have evolved enough part slots that the UI space is needed, and there is a lot of QoL to make your modal inventory experience as effortless as possible. For example many actions with even just the potential to require inventory interaction will automatically open and close it for you, such as grabbing a part to drag-dop it with the mouse:



The example above also shows further interactions after manually using the new INVENTORY button, and you can choose to open the inventory and leave it open while doing other things if you like, such as consecutive manipulation of a group of nearby parts. The GIF upload gets kinda messed up a bit at the bottom for some reason, but you can also see that any time an item is added to the inventory, even while it's closed there is a new indicator down there to show the addition.

As usual, using the typewise direct swapping menu is also a convenient way to achieve that goal without opening the inventory at all:



Note: Keyboard players can use the 'i' key to toggle the inventory. How convenient!

In order to keep your inventory visible/non-modal for as long as possible, by default your part category headers will also disappear for a couple floors in the mid-game as you first evolve enough slots to otherwise cause the inventory to hide. They are replaced by bars along the sides to indicate the slots for each of the four categories (which are also labeled by type when empty), and the bars themselves double as the CYCLE buttons specifically for mouse users, as you can see in this demo:



If you end up not liking that feature and would prefer your inventory instead simply disappear earlier, there is an advanced.cfg option to toggle this behavior ("condenseSlotTypeHeaders").

While the Semi-modal layout is called such because you have immediate access to all windows for at least part of a run, as you saw earlier the Modal layout starts with multiple hidden windows. These would be the informational windows that normally appear above the map, and accessing them should be pretty intuitive--it's the same old buttons and keys, and you may not even need to open them much of the time since messages can temporarily appear over the map.

Using the extended log will even give you two columns of log messages:



There are advanced.cfg options if you want to adjust the number of messages, or how long each remains visible.

For lots more demos and related modal UI features, see Part 5 of my Full UI Upscaling series on the dev blog, or to learn all about the design and implementation from start to finish, begin with Part 1 which covers the history and theory before continuing through all the mockups and engine features that made it possible.


A tutorial and flashing notification will make sure you know about the map zoom if you don't find it yourself, but it's probably fairly obvious with the all-caps ZOOM button staring at you from the top of the map (unless you're a pure keyboard player with the cursor off, in which case that unnecessary button is hidden and you get to use the 'z' key, how convenient!). Holding Shift while using the mouse wheel is another way to zoom, convenient for anyone who happens to be looking around the map via mouse-based Shift-panning.

A quick demo of panning around the map and zooming in and out (this is just in a small window for sharability's sake, mind you--yours will be larger):



Because zooming reduces how far ahead you, the player, can see, you now also have the option to manually designate a new view centerpoint, useful if you're more interested in a particular direction. Mouse users hold the right mouse button to do this, while keyboard players can use 's' ('s'et centerpoint) in examine mode. To restore the centering behavior to normal, just do the same at your own location.

Mouse centerpoint demo:



Keyboard centerpoint demo taking advantage of cursor jumping:



Because doing this via keyboard is somewhat less convenient, in keyboard mode there are also algorithmic approaches that will automatically adjust the centerpoint depending on movement direction and the surroundings, like so:



This behavior normally only applies if zoomed in while using the Non-modal UI layout (which has a larger map to begin with) and there are multiple algorithms to choose from (or deactivate completely, but I've found that once you get used to it the default algorithm can be pretty useful). You can also temporarily set a manual centerpoint to override it. These features and more related options are covered in detail in the manual's new section on "Map Zooming" under "Accessibility."

The other primary drawback to being zoomed in is seeing so much less of the map at once--given a square map view, 2x zoom means you're seeing only a quarter of the normal area you could see before. In a ranged combat environment like Cogmind that was designed with large maps, lots of potential threats, and correspondingly far detection and attack ranges in mind, that means a lot of potentially important info is not in sight at once. Although panning the map, utilizing centerpoints, or occasionally zooming out are useful for proactive management of situational awareness, good QoL can save us quite a lot of time... Bring on the QoL!

Map zoom QoL mainly comes in two categories: markers and responses...

There are offscreen markers for visible robots (here using drones to help expand FOV for demo purposes):



There are offscreen markers for newly-spotted-but-not-yet-labeled items:



There are offscreen markers for sensor data (GIF's not uploading right but you get the idea):



And where it's important, the map view will automatically shift to show offscreen events of importance, like a new threat:



Autoshifting will respond to Watcher reporting, Operator spotting, Heavy active sensor sources, special machine pings... basically the kinds of things you will almost certainly want to see. A lot of this behavior can also be customized via advanced.cfg.

Over on the dev blog I did a whole multipart blog series on map zooming, and in the concluding QoL segment you can see lots more about the above features, plus others, or read back through the entire development process.


We still have yet to get to the actual changelog and its many secondary features, which is another of those really long ones I decided would be easier to digest if more finely categorized.

• NEW: Increased text/tile size by ~33% via 45-row UI layouts, affecting map view area and window modality (new default setting, adjust in Options menu)
  
• NEW: Zoom the map view, toggling via 'z' key, the <ZOOM> mouse button just above the map, or the scroll wheel while panning the map (Shift)
  
• NEW: While map zoomed, or if using modal UI layouts, many objects outside view area that would normally be visible are reflected via offscreen markers
  
• NEW: Branch map "Subcaves"
  
• NEW: 35 new items (including new mechanics)
  
• MOD: Optimized audio asset loading reduces game startup time by up to 40% on some systems [Luigi]
  
• MOD: Optimized rendering increases maximum FPS by 50% or more, especially in tiles mode during heavy movement or animations [Luigi]

• NEW: 18 new encounters
  
• NEW: 3 new Complex 0b10 map events
  
• NEW: 3 new derelict robot classes, each with new AI
  
• NEW: 2 new robot tiles
  
• NEW: 2 more unique named NPCs
  
• NEW: 2 new trap types
  
• NEW: 1 new turret variant
  
• NEW: Multiple lore entries related to new content

• NEW: Multiple new font sets based on three new typefaces: Tamsyn, Swanston, Cherry
  
• NEW: Numerous additional font typefaces and variants for higher resolutions based on autoscaled low-resolution options
  
• NEW: Support for 5K screens (multiple size 48 font sets, or size 64 for modal layouts)
  
• NEW: <HOSTILES> button just above map view while hostiles in FOV, includes tally and clickability to shift view and highlight enemies
  
• NEW: While map zoomed, or if using modal UI layouts, if new hostiles to label enter FOV but are currently out of view, view shifts to include them
  
• NEW: If certain events occur while out of map view (Watcher/Operator/machine ping/etc), view shifts to include them (advanced.cfg: shiftViewForEvents)
  
• NEW: Hold RMB on map to set custom relative view centerpoint (centering map view focuses on that position instead, including while moving)
  
• NEW: While in examine mode, press 's' to set custom relative view centerpoint (overrides automated relative view shifting, set on self to reset)
  
• NEW: While non-modal layout map zoomed in keyboard mode, view centerpoint auto-adjusts to show more in direction of exploration (see manual for options)
  
• NEW: Hidden modal inventory automatically toggled open during relevant 'p' part management options and modal drop process (keyboard mode)
  
• NEW: Adding '!' anywhere in item tag forces it to require confirmation to attach
  
• NEW: Operators preparing to lock Terminal due to IFF handshake failure temporarily flash a marker at their location, or last known location on leaving FOV
  
• NEW: Mines infestation event includes input block when triggered, to ensure time to respond even when playing fast
  
• NEW: Long-range pathfinding avoids cave-in areas outside FOV based on location's last known state
  
• NEW: Option to block all pathfinding through areas with cave-in potential, even if no other route (advanced.cfg: blockCaveinAreasForPathfinding)
  
• NEW: Optional warning when move might cause a cave-in (advanced.cfg: warnOnCaveinMove)
  
• NEW: Adding item to a large inventory autosorts by type and scrolls to location in list, momentarily highlighting it
  
• NEW: Removing item from a large inventory, or other changes to inventory contents, retains scroll state as best possible
  
• NEW: Modifying specific inventory items highlights and centers on them, for example repairing broken parts, drones returning to inventory bays, etc.
  
• NEW: Select items with lengthier descriptions may include a More button in their info window that gives access to additional details
  
• NEW: In modal UI layouts, primary Advanced Commands list split into two pages
  
• NEW: Option to force message and audio feedback on startup and upon entering -1 if scoresheet uploading is inactive (advanced.cfg: uploadScoresReminder)
  
• NEW: Option to have map item labels specify size of unidentified items if greater than 1 (advanced.cfg: itemLabelAddUnidentifiedSize)
  
• NEW: Option to adjust maximum number of lines visible for on-map message log in Modal 45-row UI layout (advanced.cfg: mapMessageLogMaxLength)
  
• NEW: Option to adjust maximum duration on-map message log messages in Modal 45-row UI layout (advanced.cfg: mapMessageLogDuration)
  
• MOD: World map fully opens almost instantly instead of tracing route
  
• MOD: Removed inventory sorting by integrity and mass
  
• MOD: Map intel mode toggle key changed from 'z' to 'm'
  
• MOD: Advanced Commands help for parts window no longer lists a number of simple commands already found on Basic commands page
  
• MOD: Gameover screen once again reports score upload status in real time
  
• MOD: Updated overall formatting of some font set names
  
• MOD: Increased timing leniency of various repeat input required to confirm an action, especially with regard to part manipulation
  
• MOD: Increased accuracy and smoothness of map panning via Shift+mouse
  
• MOD: Interface feedback messages use different text typing sound than regular message logs (advanced.cfg: muteTextSfx setting applies to this as well)
  
• MOD: Intel markers in map view that overlap known sensor data blink instead of showing persistently
  
• MOD: Options menu font set selection menu ordered from largest applicable set to smallest, in windowed mode

• NEW: Salvageable matter may merge with existing free matter when dropped
  
• NEW: Plasma Cutters reimagined with new abilities
  
• NEW: Tractor Beam effect includes animation and SFX
  
• NEW: Repair Stations may release functionality level-appropriate backup parts on taking damage
  
• NEW: Transport Network Coupler places sabotage intel marker at location of third-party cargo convoy interruption if active at time of report
  
• NEW: Bonus points for completing transforming item quests
  
• NEW: Rigged power sources now show their status as RIGGED and provide relevant context help to explain related mechanics
  
• NEW: Component Analysis Suite explicitly indicates it cannot identify alien technology
  
• NEW: Shielding utilities' effect data explicitly indicate they cannot protect against overflow damage, as implied in manual
  
• MOD: Ramming no longer explicitly increases target salvage potential
  
• MOD: All melee weapon sever crit chances increased by approximately 25% of original value
  
• MOD: Reduced falloff of all electromagnetic launchers by 1
  
• MOD: Increased range of all 12-range electromagnetic launchers to 14
  
• MOD: Guided projectiles using waypoints compare cumulative range against maximum weapon range, rather than absolute range
  
• MOD: Throwing Claymore stacks reduced in size
  
• MOD: Multislot propulsion no longer fabs in pairs
  
• MOD: Sterilization system takes longer to melt objects in maps which start at colder ambient temperature
  
• MOD: Sterilization system prevents further accumulation of machine destruction value towards score
  
• MOD: Search patrol responses converted to assault dispatches in extended game area C
  
• MOD: Newly spawned robots start with full energy reserves instead of base energy amount
  
• MOD: Some friendly NPCs that go hostile on being attacked are more lenient to allow for an accidental hit
  
• MOD: Non-0b10 Mechanics/Surgeons or those with explicit AID order use shorter ranges when searching for repair targets
  
• MOD: Allied Researchers unable to identify more types of non-0b10 tech

• NEW: While combat log detail set to High or above, manually scrolling contents away from bottom automatically opens and scrolls expanded combat log view
  
• NEW: Combat log inserts "???" where the source of an attack effect is unknown
  
• NEW: Setting combat log detail to High or above includes victim name when part or core hit or destroyed
  
• NEW: Setting combat log detail to High or above reports triggered traps, disruptions, projectile penetration, and some critical effects
  
• NEW: Setting combat log detail to Full reports all critical effects, immediate meltdowns due to thermal transfer, and most terrain destruction
  
• NEW: Combat log explicitly identifies melee followups, sneak attacks, and Cogmind gunslinging target switches where applicable
  
• NEW: Programmer hacking attempts/results also reported in combat log
  
• MOD: CALC window renamed COMBAT
  
• MOD: Combat log friendly hit/miss messages displayed in shades of white/gray instead of green
  
• MOD: Multiprojectile weapons merge all projectiles into single combat log entry for hit tally reporting
  
• MOD: Combat log no longer includes hit part/core coverage/exposure value, regardless of setting

• NEW: Automated saves on map entry in Adventurer/Explorer mode do not occur if more than one-third of your part slots were empty on leaving previous map
  
• NEW: Updated manual section on "Accessibility" to reflect new layout options and map zooming features
  
• NEW: Added new combat log features to Advanced UI > Combat Log Window manual section
  
• NEW: Contextual tutorial message about moves that may cause cave-ins
  
• NEW: Tutorial message about map zooming feature, and flashing button reminder

• NEW: 23 new scoresheet entries (total = 1,058)
  
• MOD: user/meta.bin file renamed progress.bin
  
• MOD: Leaderboards display different locations based on win type rather than "Ascended"

• NEW: Fatal error screen gives full details of internal error message, as found in run.log
  
• FIX: New crash as of Beta 12 while animating one of the rarer ending sequences [MTF]
  
• FIX: [RPGLIKE mode] New Beta 12 caves encounter crashed map on first turn after entry [Infomantis]

So that's, uh, part of the changelog. The full thing is more than twice as long, a bit excessive to include here, so the less important bits were relegated to a separate extended changelog which as usual you can find packaged with the game or online here.

Saves from earlier versions are incompatible with Beta 13, but even if you're on Steam and Cogmind automatically updates, Beta 12 is still available via its own legacy branch and you can roll back to finish a run in progress first if you like.


For Beta 13 the combat log has been significantly expanded, including almost every possible detail when set to the highest level. Patrons have consistently put lots of votes towards seeing this happen, and while it never quite topped the list, that consistency and a contingent of really persistent optimization-loving fans convinced me it was about time to do it. If you like logs, drop by Discord and thank those folks :)

Simply scrolling the combat log also opens a full-height version that's easier to read if you want to examine a greater number of attacks/turns:



For a range of visual samples and explanations of what you can find in the new combat log, see SITREP #51.

One sample you won't find there (because it was just added recently) is a new explicit indicator for when the source of an attack is unknown:




You may notice that Cogmind Beta 13 starts up more quickly. Of course it's not exactly instantaneous--there's a lot of resources to prepare and the game loads most things it could possibly need right from the start. Definitely faster, though, by up to 40%!

This is actually the doing of Luigi, one of Cogmind's biggest supporters over the years, so a big round of applause to Luigi for his work with the open source libraries my engine depends on. And it doesn't stop there! Luigi has also contributed optimizations to SDL itself, improving Cogmind's rendering performance by 50% or more.

These are some insane numbers.

Luigi you're amazing.

(Part of Luigi's impetus here was to get Cogmind running smoothly on the latest Apple hardware--he is also the creator of mods to make that possible, instructions and links for which are available here, if interested.)

So you're still here, eh?

I guess let's round off this announcement with a collection of random stuff from the changelog I happened to record along the way :)

You'll find a few items now have a [M]ore button, generally avoided and not needed, but in a handful of cases where we have a weapon (which already mostly fill their stats page to begin with) that also possesses a more involved special ability we need some extra room for the description. (This button may apply either to an item's Effect section or description at the bottom.)



The world map was rebuilt to animate instantly on being opened rather than tracing your route!



The Plasma Cutter has a completely different use now, instead for safely cutting up explosive machines, or making it through almost any blast door given enough time.



I discovered that simulated debris from destruction out of sight and not nearby you was only working in ASCII mode, not tiles, leading to somewhat cleaner environments in the latter case even where a previous battle took place. Here's a comparison before and after the fix, showing what a room looks like after a battle between some derelicts and 0b10 forces also destroyed a nearby machine:



Obviously if there happen to be any Workers nearby they'll clean it up anyway, but still, it should be there until then! (or it's a map with no Serfs, or they're all far away or whatever)

Mass and Integrity sorting were removed from the inventory window, leaving only type sorting (forward and reverse), so that button looks different now as well:



This was to regain the keys m/i for easy keyboard access to zooming (after also moving the original 'z' intel to 'm'ap intel) and modal inventory, our new UI features. Most people purely rely on type sort anyway, the largest inventories have shrunk since Beta 11, and the mass/integrity info can be relatively easily obtained and parsed by switching to the appropriate visualization mode anyway.

Your inventory will now maintain the same scroll position during manipulation, such as dropping parts, allowing more rapid dropping in succession:



And adding a new item to your inventory automatically sorts the list, scrolls to the new item's position, and highlights it for a moment:



(The original behavior was to always scroll to the end of your inventory list and put it there.)

The leaderboards now more explicitly indicate the location of each win (as originally reflected in the scoresheet) instead of showing all wins as simply "Ascended."



Once your score is uploaded (if you have opted in), the game over screen will also show the leaderboards URL for those who may not be aware of it. (As usual the full scoresheet still includes direct URLs to your online scoresheet data as well, at the end.)

Guided projectiles are finally capable of checking their cumulative travel distance against the weapon range, rather than using absolute range from the firing origin, so you'll be a little more limited in what weird stuff you can do with these types of weapons nearby your position, assuming you had enough waypoints :P



While using Refit at a Repair Station is usually going to be an easier option if that's your goal, in the interest of fun environmental interactions, destroyed Repair Stations may now randomly spill some of their backup parts:



Matter salvage is now capable of merging when it drops! See how this Recycler's destruction simply grows the original matter pile below it:



Similarly, matter spilled on top of a collection of parts and matter will sometimes attempt to instead combine with nearby existing matter. Across larger battlefields this can result in somewhat more concentrated matter and a little extra room for salvageable components that might otherwise be pushed further away, or crushed outright due to floor space being taken up by excessive matter. This had became somewhat more common given the newer ability of kinetic cannon strikes to blast usable matter off targets (even though that effect was already capable of matter merging).

Speaking of matter, Tractor Beams also now come with an animation and sound effect as they do their sucking (sorry for the smaller recording, a lot of these were done in my test environment just to have a record :P):



Many of the new items I described or alluded to in the months before embarking on the UI Quest are completed and still waiting on the sidelines for Beta 14, but the Subcaves and new bots and encounters already added in Beta 13 do of course include a decent chunk of them--35 new items in all, so nothing to sneeze at. More than half of these are pretty special, just a taste of the increasingly unique items and build possibilities to come.




About that Beta 14, I hope to release it sooner rather than later. This will not be the same kind of wait as seen for the previous releases, in part because a decent chunk of its content is complete, and in part because I did split up the Scraptown expansion into multiple separate versions to keep them more reasonable. If you recall from my Year 10 of the Cogmind annual review, we've already got general plans out to Beta 17, and I hope that each of these releases won't be quite so huge so they can be delivered in a more timely manner.

Due to reorienting this version towards new interface options, some other features I've previously mentioned as slated for Beta 13, like updated movement behavior for large robot AI, have been moved back to Beta 14. This also includes the Scrap Engine's proper location, so that can still be found simply lying on the ground at the entrance to Recycling for now :P

Thank you for your support, currently no plans for 1.0, just more free expansions (10th different ending coming up!), hope you enjoy the new UI layouts and other features, leave reviews :)

Update 240304: We now also have a couple of week 1 Beta 13 patches, adding yet more QoL features and a few adjustments, described here.

Early this month I introduced Cogmind's first new upscaled layout option, then immediately followed up with development of our second new option! While the other option (to become the new player default) is "Semi-modal," we'll now have a third and even more extreme "Modal" layout which, as you can see in the sample above, hides away the top-side consoles in order to reclaim more of the map view.

That sample screenshot happens to be taken with optional map zoom activated as well--although I think the upscaled grid size across the board means modal layout players are less likely to need or want to zoom the map, the function is of course available and the new zoom-related QoL will come in especially useful.

With the top-side consoles hidden, message/combat logs can be opened and read in full as usual, but for convenience they'll also show temporarily over the map (adjustable count and duration), as seen here with two columns of message log data:



A mix of message log (left) and combat log (right):



Above the map are the familiar buttons for interacting with what is normally visible in those consoles:



See below for some additional sample screenshots from the Modal UI layout (open images to full size if necessary).

Early game (zoomed, 1080p):



Late game (not zoomed, 1080p):



The same scene as above, but in 1440p and using one of several new fonts added to Beta 13 (Tamsyn):



If you want to see the Modal layout in action, earlier this week I streamed a run making use of it, actually the conclusion to my last stream that began with the other/Semi-modal layout:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XolIIvhIta0

All three UI layout options are available right from the top of the Options menu (requires a restart to take effect):



More information, as well as a summary of the Semi-modal layout, can be found on the dev blog in Part 5 of the the "Full UI Upscaling" series, "Completion and Demos."


-
If you're itching to try these new layouts yourself, the good news is... they're coming next week! The results of testing have been very positive, and Beta 13 release is now scheduled for February 27th :D

I recently finished my Adventures in Map Zooming series over on the dev blog, and the most recent and final part covers what is from a player perspective the most important zooming-related topic: QoL!

You can read the full article for every detail, but this being a set of vital new features I figure it's worth providing a quick summary here in announcement form as well.



Before we get to that, another important notice: Since last week's introduction of a new fully-upscaled UI layout, I also had the opportunity to stream that layout and demonstrate it in action while talking about its various features:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf4pS_sph2Q

Work on modal layouts has continued this week, including the addition of our third even more modal variant I know some you have been looking forward to as well. Yep, the "Phase 4" UI is already on the way... I'll be featuring that one in my next stream.


Spinning the mouse wheel is normally a convenient way to wait for turns to pass, and we wouldn't want to take that away, but many folks are already using the mouse to pan the map view around while holding Shift, and Shift-Wheel is not taken, so provides us a natural alternative for toggling zoom state rather than always requiring usage of the ZOOM button or 'z' key.



That’s low-hanging fruit, though. We’re going to need much more powerful QoL...

Beginning in Beta 13, you'll be able to manually adjust the map centerpoint to keep more focused in a particular direction of interest (important while zoomed in because the visible map area is smaller):



Non-mouse players can similarly set a manual centerpoint via keyboard, which is still fairly fast if you're familiar with jumping the examine cursor:



Keyboard players can also take advantage of several types of algorithms for automatically adjusting their centerpoint while zoomed, trying to shift the view without any manual input in order to keep interesting features visible (it seems weird and takes some getting used to, but at least in the non-modal UI layout it works as a pretty nice supplementary feature):




Once you’re zoomed in on only a quarter of the normal map area, it’s literally impossible to always see everything you might need to see in every situation. We need new indicators for important objects outside the current map view, especially those which are still within FOV (and probably even attack range!).

While manually panning the map or designating a centerpoint to keep an eye on a particular direction is useful, and temporarily zooming out to get a general idea of the surroundings is another option, to save time there are a variety of new markers that can appear at the edges of the map view to denote objects in that direction. You’ll see markers for offscreen hostiles, non-hostiles (both neutral and friendly), new items, and sensor data. Each marker category uses its own unique background color, and in the case of sensor data is also darker and blinks in and out to reflect the fact that it is not a directly visible object like the others. Items are only marked until automatically labeled for the first time after entering view.

A demo of flashing offscreen zoom markers for visible robots (I have some drones out here to help demonstrate):



Threats appear on a dark red background, while non-hostile robots use dark-green. As usual, the colors used are different if colorblind mode is active.

Flashing offscreen zoom markers for new items, which use a dark gray background:



Dark offscreen sensor data markers with a low-frequency blink out effect:



Indicators are great, but still not quite enough. After all, what do you generally want to do when a new threat comes into view? A quick visual check! What exactly are they, what’s their status, do they have company, what’s the surrounding environment like... These can be important questions to answer before making your next decision, and by default Cogmind already pauses for a moment in these situations in order to let the player have a moment to take it in (and avoid accidentally wasting valuable turns), so why not also use that opportunity to automatically shift the view over to spot the threat?

Automatically shifting the view a bit more to the left as soon as a Sentry is spotted down at the end of a corridor:



Another autoshifting example, in this case simultaneously spotting enemies down two different corridors and shifting to put them all in view:



The full article has other samples, such as shifting the map view to highlight a Watcher reporting a threat to nearby allies, or entering a Heavy's potential sensor range. Automated shifting can also be applied to useful situations such as machine pings (RIF Installer discovery, Zion Terminals...).

whether zoomed or not, another new feature that became more desirable with the advent of zooming is the new HOSTILES button that can appear above the map. This serves as a reminder that there are enemies in view, and is also clickable to center on said enemies (or back on oneself):



There you have it, anyone planning to stick with the original 60-row UI layout and combining that with map zooming will likely be making heavy use of many of these features, which will also come in handy even when not zoomed in if using a new modal layout.

Progress has been so good that unless there are too many unexpected discoveries during ongoing testing, Beta 13 might just release a lot sooner than later... this month even? (I do hope that we can get some more reviews going--been a slow... years in that regard :P)

Again I'll soon be streaming further playtesting of the modal layouts, including the newest one I have yet to properly introduce. Sharing that will probably be a good opportunity to finish my other run, the melee-crab-turned-flier :)

Aside: While there's no Community section to today's announcement, I feel it's worth pointing to a recent masterpiece by u/dogawesome. They've been posting a lot of memes to r/Cogmind lately, and recently concluded with a video meme compilation that summarizes a lot of Cogmind experiences in a pretty funny way. While one could say it contains a lot of spoiler references, they're almost all so esoteric and indicated by acronyms such that you only know if you know, so maybe not really that spoilery after all. In any case, consider checking it out here for some laughs :)

With map zooming and lots of other work already complete and ready for the upcoming Beta 13 release, early last month I began building the optional new UI layout to make everything larger! I first shared the specifications last year, and more recently have been writing about them as relevant architectural work got underway in earnest.

That series began with the new year, where you can read in Part 1 about the history and theory behind Cogmind's UI layout, where it's been and where it's going.



The current layout will continue to exist as an option, generally being the most efficient way to play, but we'll be getting a new default layout that increases the size of everything across the board by 33%. In other words, for example those of you using size 18 fonts and tiles (the majority of players), will instead be using size 24 under the new layout.

Here is a sample screenshot of the 1080p 45-row terminal layout:



And the intro image at the opening of this post can be opened to full size for a side-by-side comparison of the 1080p resolution appearance before and after the changes.

More on this project further below, but first...


First of all a quick update for those who might be interested in the separate map zooming feature and haven't been following the blog: it is now fully implemented and works great. (This is different from the UI upscaling, which applies to the entire interface--the map can be further zoomed in addition to that.) I've documented the work behind that process in a series of articles on the blog--lots of engine work, testing, and new feature development.

The coolest part is all the related QoL that helps mitigate the drawbacks of a zoomed map view so that it's actually decently playable, which I'll be sharing in more detail later this month (the blog is kinda overflowing with content lately :P). I already demoed a lot of it in that earlier video, but it wasn't a concentrated demo, and when that info comes out in article form you'll be able to browse all the features more easily, with many samples.

However, what I'm actually working on now could in many cases make it so that you will not even need or want to to zoom the map :)


A couple times before, including most recently as part of my Year 10 of the Cogmind update, I shared this diagram (to scale) of my UI layout plans:



To summarize, Phase 2 is complete, and I've been making very good progress on Phase 3. As I work on it, I'm also starting to lean towards going all the way to Phase 4 with this right now, if only because it will probably be more playable overall than Phase 3, though doing so will of course take longer. It's going to happen eventually, so may as well do it now while the UI iron is hot, yeah?

Phase 1/3/4 would each represent different UI options, with Phase 2 work representing map zooming, a feature technically available regardless of layout.

If you'd like to read more about the implementation details, I've been sharing it across several articles so far:

Full UI Upscaling, Part 1: History and Theory: Background and summary of the intent and plans behind building Cogmind's fully upscaled semi-modal interface layout.

Full UI Upscaling, Part 2: Holy Mockups!: Revisiting many of Cogmind's windows to make adjustments enabling everything to fit into fewer rows for the semi-modal UI layout.


Full UI Upscaling, Part 3: Dynamic Terminal Swapping: Figuring out how to get Cogmind's many 60-row ending animations to play nicely with a 45-row terminal layout.


There's no specific timeline for completion of this project (I don't want to offer up any dates because my preference is to prioritize the addition of even more unexpected features when opportunities present themselves rather than striving to hit particular deadlines), but I will say that I hope to get this out there as soon as possible since it's already delayed what I was originally working on (the expansion proper), not to mention the last Beta release was a while ago. Unfortunately the sheer scope of this UI project has had a lot of architectural repercussions, requiring a lengthy testing process to ensure the stability and quality Cogmind is known for, as well as eventual knock-on effects like requiring me to finally redo a significant portion of Cogmind's media screenshots and info prior its release.

Anyway, quite an undertaking, and I really look forward to getting back to the Scraptown/UFD expansion when this is done some time in the next couple months. Oops, I said a date.

In the meantime, more info will be coming to the blog and elsewhere, as usual :)


That's not all! You want details! I haven't recorded absolutely all the new stuff in action, but below you can see some highlights. The first 1080p screenshot I shared above was before the inventory becomes modal, which doesn't occur until you've evolved enough slots to need that space for your parts list (this isn't generally until you reach -5/Factory). Here's another scene after the inventory has switched to its modal form, accessed via that button down there at the bottom:



(All of the following images were recorded using a 1080p interface, so open them to see at their true size if necessary, and of course if you actually play using a resolution even greater than that, everything will be scaled up accordingly in use, as usual.)

Once modal, adding an item to your inventory, whether from the ground or detaching it, has a new indicator to show it went there:



Drag-dropping works normally, and you can even drag attached parts directly onto the inventory button to send them there without opening it:



We have related QoL, like situations where the inventory is automatically opened and closed for you, for example when using corresponding relevant functions of the modal 'p' part management menu:



In the above example, hitting 'p' to activate the part management menu, then 'a' for attach, automatically opens the inventory, from which '2' is selected for the Transmission Jammer, attaching it then automatically closing the inventory again. For other keyboard input options, besides toggling the inventory with 'i', simply using any key for inventory sorting or scrolling will also automatically open it.

Of course the regular old swap menu also works just fine, even when the inventory is modal, meaning opening the inventory is often not even necessary:



The inventory-first keyboard swap system has also been modified to remain compatible with a modal inventory, with automated opening/closing if necessary:



Once you've evolved enough slots, in order to keep the inventory visible for as long as possible the parts headers will also be removed to condense the list into a new format. The sidebars are clickable just like the regular CYCLE buttons, so that mouse users can retain access to that functionality if they need it:



Secondary UI windows that were in most cases designed for at least 50 rows (and to fit in the map view area, like when hacking machines), now occupy the entire height of the program, and were adjusted to fit into 45 rows as necessary. Like for items the best solution was to move their art off to the side:



Likewise, item searching has to cover the entire HUD, as well as reduce its help text area, but there's still enough room down there to show the essentials (huh, Imgur seems to have messed up the final frame of this gif xD):



The added height pressure meant that in a handful of rare cases it might be possible for robot info to not fit in 45 rows, though in all such cases the info fits if we apply the "More" button to resistances (functionality originally added to support longer descriptions for items in Beta 13):



Multiple changes were required across the content of game menu pages, which in most cases turned out as described in the earlier mockups I shared. Here's a demo of the new basic commands/button layout, and two-page access to advanced commands:



All three types of collection UIs (gallery/lore/achievements) were reworked specifically for this layout, for example achievements:



Although in the new layout those windows occupy the entire screen, they don't normally extend to all edges in the full/original layout, nor do the supporter/patron lists do so in any layout, so I've finally taken the opportunity to rework the archirtecture such that the background can be darkened while these modal windows are open (something I've wanted to do for years):



As with other secondary windows, in this layout the world map view also occupies the entire program height, and was somewhat condensed in order to fit within the limitations, but the good news (for everyone!) is that I also took this opportunity to do something else that I've wanted to do for years: speed it up. Although I started with this fun vision of a map animating the route you took to get where you are, while not too problematic in Cogmind's early years, the continued addition of new areas and potential for lengthier routes could make it a bit of a slot to view the full map in the late game, so I've rebuilt it to appear in its entirety almost instantly :D



As described in Part 3 of my series on terminal swapping, here's a demo of the new 45-row layout temporarily switching to 60 rows for the end game sequence and final screen (which would include any win animations)--the corresponding font goes from size 16 Terminus to size 12 Terminus, which I've recorded in a 720p window (though of course further shrunk here for display--open for full size):



This new "semi-modal" layout for Cogmind will likely become the new default, and can be changed in the options menu (though taking effect requires a restart):



There's a good chance that I'll be taking this development all the way to "Phase 4" right away, the even more modal layout hiding the top-side consoles as well in order to restore much more of the map view. That would become a third optional setting.


If you want to check out these features live, and ask questions, listen to dev talk, or just hang out with other players, I'll be playtesting this layout on stream next Monday (Feb. 5) starting around 7:30 PM EST for likely a few hours.

After that you'll be able to find it archived here.

UPDATE 240205: I was about to stream at the announced time today and suddenly discovered that I'm locked out of my Twitch account for about the next week xD

I tried to see if it could be resolved quickly, but no go. And I was all ready to do that stream, too :/

I'll have to reschedule the demo stream, maybe for the same time next week, but we'll see (it'll be announced separately in the forums and elsewhere...).

UPDATE 240212: Alright, as of now I'm back into my account and will schedule this upscaled stream for the same time this week, so in about 12 hours: Monday (Feb. 12) starting around 7:30 PM EST!

The results of the stream are now archived here:

https://youtu.be/nf4pS_sph2Q


Wiki links now instead to lead to this new front page with lots of links to useful information, including a separate community wiki database and tools that people have been redirected to for a while now anyway:



Beta 13 is on the way! Probably won't be more than one SITREP before then, if any, though I may put one out to highlight some of the map zooming QoL, just to once again drive home what's coming so that folks are aware :D. Oh right, Phase 4 would likely be something worth sharing in advance as well... I'm super curious what ratio of players will end up wanting to use the new layout(s), and will be eager to examine and share those stats with you all when the time comes.