Beta 11 X10 Prerelease - Big Gunz

First the bad news: Last Monday I got a fairly serious concussion, again xD

But the good news is that the next prerelease was close enough to completion that I still managed to finish it this week, and it is a mighty one.

Really wish I could play this version with you all on stream (and talk about it), but now I can't stream at all for the time being, hence the lack of a continuation of the sterilization run earlier. Unfortunately this week happens to be the CNY holiday, so I have to wait a whole week after my injury until I can see the doctor I need to see and start some proper treatment. Right now it's just lots of sleep and acetaminophen for me.

Due to resulting time constraints I didn't quite get to pack in everything I wanted for this version, in particular a planned NEM update and a bit more polish related to another new mechanic (which itself was unplanned anyway so that's not a huge deal :P), but regardless there's a lot of stuff to chew on in X10.

So yeah this is essentially the second half of what was meant to be X9 to begin with, representing the completion of Cogmind's huge rebalance, and I'd say it was a good request/suggestion to release what I had at the time for the end of the year, since 1) it meant everyone could have a new version with already quite a few changes to play with, and 2) allowed me more time to work with this version separately, which meant more flexibility to add even more stuff than was planned to begin with ;)

This release is indeed focused on rebalancing, and we're mostly done with that now (!), but there's also a greater amount of completely new stuff than I would've imagined adding as well... (not all of it will be discussed here--spoilers and discovery and all)

Rebalance

I covered a good bit of this process in my dev streams (archived on YouTube), and earlier in this post, but the next blog article should also cover the topic with more details in written form, something I'll be working on next.

In general the idea was to nerf or buff items as necessary now that Cogmind has a lot of new content and mechanics than it had when many of these things were first introduced, some untouched since the 7DRL days, or early alpha. So stats were tweaked, some mechanics redone, some items further differentiated from others, and you'll also see a fair amount of renaming going on either to reduce confusion or generally limit the number of names related to a given mechanic (the earliest versions had fewer items, so the idea was to for example add more flavor by using very different names for different utility tiers if possible, but now we have so many more truly unique items that it's better to mostly have naming reflect unique effects instead of pure flavor).

The rebalancing process was able to take into account all the new mechanics that have been added over the years (for example KI guns now have gunslinging, so it was fine to reduce their average max range below KI cannons so the latter have their own unique advantage there), and for this process I also transferred all the item data to Excel spreadsheets so I could examine it in a different way, without my usual syntax highlighting and instead taking advantage of alternative visualizations and highlighting rules. Looking at the same data in a different way is a good method for finding new angles from which to think about it, and in turn likely come up with different opinions or at least notice oddities that might be more likely to stand out when given a new representation.

One important thing to remember here is that item changes tend to affect bots that use those items! Some bots were slightly redesigned as a result, but for the most part the changes are just there, for example Hunters technically got indirectly nerfed due to the damage reduction on their weapons.

By far the biggest categorical change was a complete reimagining of impact melee weapons, taking into account their unique targeting mechanics, and what that means when fighting other bots. They've always been pretty scary when used against Cogmind, and I'll have to say they're technically now even scarier! But they also might be fairly more useful for Cogmind now (we'll have to see, but they might need to be nerfed again? this was quite a buff for weapons which were technically already starting to get good in their own niche xD).

Some Details

Trap Extractors are cool! I already showed it in the last quick update post, but here it is again: 

Basically they can now be "overloaded" to cycle them to their third state, DROP, which drops a contained trap once per turn. and their normal active state does the extraction as before. Only one type of trap can be contained at once, and different extractors have different capacities. It's our first inventory within an inventory item... let's see how this goes! (Also sorry but you can extract yet not store Stasis Traps.)

Here's the new Force Booster mechanic in action, allowing you to directly increase the max damage of a melee weapon (rather than the indirect effect from momentum-boosting, which was somewhat convoluted even if it did technically also benefit ramming and kicking, which is no longer the case):

As you know if you were in Discord or any of the multiple streams in which they were discussed (at length xD), Core Analyzers got a big change: they have a much more straightforward effect now, simply increasing core exposure on the target. And perhaps even more interesting: no bots are immune to its effect anymore. We'll see how that goes...

Early on Beta 11 already added a visual sequence to go along with program startup (which has certainly taken longer and longer over the years :P), and now we also have one for shutdown! Honestly the game shouldn't take that long to shut down, but I have yet to profile it and determine where/what is causing that. It takes a split second in my dev version, but clearly multiple seconds when I'm doing normal runs on Steam, so it's likely there's some external cause here but we'll see when I get around to that. Anyway, in the meantime you can look at the cool shutdown visual (which is recorded here in my IDE so it's shown for all of a split second, as noted xD):

Changelog

I ended up adding a lot of the specific stat changes directly to the changelog below, but it still doesn't cover every single number change, especially for weapons, so I've included my Excel sheet for those (attached to this post), the one that I used for the design process and shared while streaming, where all the changes are highlighted with red text. Remember that this file will include mega spoilers, because it lists every single weapon in the game. To be honest unless you're already closely familiar with every weapon out there and need to update your knowledge in a comprehensive manner, you can mostly rely on the changelog itself.

Here's the differences coming from X9:

• NEW: 16 new parts (including new mechanics)
• NEW: 12 new sound effects
• NEW: 5 lore entries
• NEW: Trap Extractors can hold multiple traps, cycle to DROP mode for placement
• NEW: System Guard converted to Processor, given new effect: reduces effective system corruption
• NEW: Corruption Screen converted to Processor, given new mechanic: degrades to block new system corruption
• NEW: Neutron Cannons and Neutron Missiles given electromagnetic side effects
• NEW: Fabnet mechanic has a potential drawback
• NEW: System Guard effect reflected in HUD alongside System Corruption
• NEW: Unique animation for tranforming parts
• NEW: Exiting the game modifies display appearance and shows a message while that process is in progress
• NEW: FPS display setting now stored in system.cfg (showFps) to recall between sessions
• NEW: Gallery data exporting includes values for Unstable/Entropic weapons
• NEW: Additional scoresheet entries for corruption blocking effects
• NEW: Scoresheet entry recording parts lost to critical strikes
• NEW: Scoresheet entry for best Force Booster effect
• NEW: Scoresheet includes data on damage redirected to shielding
• NEW: Scoresheet includes data on total part integrity restored via all sources of repairs and regeneration
• NEW: Scoresheet includes entries for best trap extraction effect and carried trap counts
• NEW: Manual Kinetic/Impact damage sections give details on chance of knockback to displace a second robot, and the damage inflicted
• MOD: Any system corruption side effect can occur at any level, thresholds removed but relative corruption-based likelihood of each type unchanged
• MOD: Further strengthened overload heat surges
• MOD: Allies ignore Watcher targets if Cogmind has Watcher Feeds RIF ability
• MOD: Researchers and Wizards given Corruption Screens
• MOD: P-80 Master power source upgraded
• MOD: Removed Heavy class Coring immunity, given Graphene Brace
• MOD: Rebalanced various thermal cannon stats, including Hvy. Plasma Cannon, Matter Neutralizers
• MOD: Rebalanced various EM cannon stats, including Hvy. Proton Cannon, Com. HERF Cannon, Hpw. Disruptor Cannon
• MOD: Gamma Rifle no longer a prototype
• MOD: Tachyon Dispersion Ray swithed from Wide to Fine spectrum
• MOD: Hpw. Electrolaser damage reduced (23-26 -> 21-24)
• MOD: Electrolasers renamed to Field Lasers
• MOD: Force Rifle now a prototype, with increased integrity (90->110)
• MOD: Enh. Gamma Rifle damage increased (25-29 -> 30-33), corruption crit reduced (4->2)
• MOD: Rebalanced Dispersion Rifles to differentiate from similar thermal guns
• MOD: Reduced Lgt. Assault Rifle coverage (100->60)
• MOD: Rebalanced various kinetic gun stats, including Gauss Rifles, Coil Guns, KE Penetrators
• MOD: Rebalanced various kinetic cannon stats, including Com. Linear Accelerators
• MOD: Kinetic gun base range reduced from 22 to 18
• MOD: Rebalanced all melee impact weapons: doubled integrity, coverage +50%, damage +50%, delays reworked, given -salvage modifiers, tripled Smash criticals
• MOD: Removed innate wall concrete weakness to impact damage
• MOD: Differentiated melee impact weapons with additional stat adjustments
• MOD: Increased slashing weapon Sever critical chance
• MOD: Melee Datajack delays reduced, lowered resource costs
• MOD: Dropped heat of all Remote Datajacks
• MOD: Increased Burn critical rate of all flamers
• MOD: Stasis Beam special weapons never found in the wild, only as salvage
• MOD: Thermal Generator coverage reduced (50->20)
• MOD: Imp./Adv. Cryofiber Web energy upkeep reduced by one-third
• MOD: Increased rating of YI-UF0's matter container (5->8)
• MOD: Metafield Generator integrity decreased (100->80), coverage increased (8->30), upkeep reduced (20->15)
• MOD: Tactical Coordination Suite integrity increased (30->50), energy upkeep reduced (12->10)
• MOD: Armor Integrity Analyzer rating lowered (5->4)
• MOD: Recoil Stabilizer effect increased (2->4)
• MOD: Kinecellerators allowed to buff weapon's minimum damage beyond maximum
• MOD: Force Booster momentum mechanic replaced with direct melee damage buff, accuracy malus
• MOD: Force Booster effect now <half_stack>
• MOD: Force Boosters mass, integrity, coverage increased, upkeep decreased, no longer as rare
• MOD: Exp. Melee Analysis Suite less commonly found
• MOD: Stasis Canceller reduced to one tier, rating reduced (8->5)
• MOD: Stasis Canceller effect simplified to competely ignore all stasis effects, including both immobility and defensive benefits
• MOD: Transmission Jammer ratings and upkeep increased, effects buffed at lower tiers
• MOD: Maneuvering Thruster effect increased (6->8)
• MOD: Maneuvering Thrusters renamed Reaction Control Systems and merged with the latter's existing tiers
• MOD: 5H-AD0's Cloak integrity increased (100->400)
• MOD: Hardlight Generator thermal resistance increased to match kinetic resistance
• MOD: Hardlight Generator effects increased 25~50%
• MOD: Tractor Beam coverage reduced (60->30)
• MOD: Mobile Assembled Unit production time reduced (50->10), in turn reducing matter cost
• MOD: Fusion Compressor type converted from Utility to Power
• MOD: Fusion Compressor energy generation increased (15->20)
• MOD: Matter Drive no longer a guaranteed find
• MOD: Trap extraction consumes 5 matter per attempt
• MOD: All flight array integrity increased
• MOD: Mak. Power Source heat output increased (7->10)
• MOD: Wardrone Bay size reduced (10->8)
• MOD: Robots using Imp. KE Penetrator switched to new Adv. variant
• MOD: CL-ANK's build reworked
• MOD: Quantum Sheargun renamed (spoilers)
• MOD: System Backup Modules renamed to merge with System Restoration Modules, total tier count reduced by 1
• MOD: Gravity Neutralizing Apparatus renamed Gravity Neutralizer
• MOD: Inertial Stasis Machine and Dimensional Manipulator renamed to prefixed variants of other mass support utilities
• MOD: EM Shield and EM Dispersion Field renamed to merge into prefixed variants of EM Disruption Field
• MOD: Chance of AOE EM damage triggering allied traps reduced to match chance of triggering hostile traps
• MOD: Corruption-induced collisions use proper impact damage targeting rules rather than coverage-based
• MOD: Corruption-induced collisions route damage through all normal defenses, rather than applying directly to parts
• MOD: Core Analyzer effect changed to simply increase target core exposure for all coverage-based hits
• MOD: Piercing damage side-effect changed to match new Core Analyzer effect
• MOD: Critical and Coring immunities on a robot no longer confer immunity to Core Analyzers
• MOD: Removed mid-tier Core Analyzers, updated stats of remaining ones
• MOD: Executioner loadout modified due to Core Analyzer changes
• MOD: Puncture critical strikes replaced with new Impale effect
• MOD: Minigun and Barrage Gun SFX shortened by removing spinup and some spindown
• MOD: SID effect increased
• MOD: VSS Leg energy costs reduced
• MOD: 8R-AWN's total armor coverage restored to earlier values
• MOD: Claymore description reports explosion data rather than projectile data
• MOD: Gallery CSV export for weapon data splits min/max damage into separate values
• MOD: Updated "Attack Resolution" section of manual to reflect some item changes
• FIX: Message log incorrect colored point defense interceptions [Sardaukar]
• FIX: Adventurer/Explorer mode LOADED count reported in HUD may not immediately reset on starting a new run in some circumstances [Sardaukar]
• FIX: Potential crash on opening a robot schematic on some systems [DeadlyBlueApples]
• FIX: Several new Beta 11 features partially broke creation of a new keybinds file
• FIX: "Deadly" heat transfer was only partially working
• FIX: GAL Module upgrade to damaged inventory weapon did not immediately update integrity display
• FIX: Since Beta 11 X4, overflow damage would almost never hit core
• FIX: Earlier Beta 11 change broke off-turn spotting behavior of Sentries and other guard AIs

There are also a number of things not detailed above. Have fun!

Get Beta 11 X10

On Steam, Beta 11 X10 is located on the new beta branch "beta_11_x10" accessible with the code "BigGunzzzzzz", or if you don't have Steam and bought through FastSpring and would like to try the DRM-free version, send me an email at gridsagegames@gmail.com to be added to the Beta 11 cycle notification list. (Anyone already on the list will receive an email with a new link.)

Saves are not compatible with previous releases.

There's always the chance of another one or two small updates in the near term (for example if something goes wrong), which will be otherwise unannounced except to append a notice to this announcement on Patreon, and via an announcement on the #patron Discord channel. It's not uncommon due to the experimental nature of these releases, and if saves are compatible then the same branch is simply updated, otherwise a new branch is created and announced here.

And after just a few hours in the hands of players we have our first X10 hotfix xD

• FIX: Trap Extractor always remembered first type of trap contained, unable to switch to another type if emptied
• FIX: Seismic Detector was intended to be removable, as with most Devices
• FIX: Fusion Compressor energy output was not updated yet

Saves compatible so it just replaces the old one, and I changed the version number but not the archive name for DRM-free downloaders so if you got it before this change the same link will get the newer version.

Addendum 1: Wizardry++

For those of you using Wizard Mode, the 'g' command will now interpret substrings when you want to give a particular part, an even easier way to request certain items where abbreviations won't help and you otherwise have to type out the whole thing. It'll give the first substring match it finds, so it'll still need to be unique (but that's also perfect for spawning some of the items which are more unique in the first place, like NPC gear). For example simply "g boom" will give you 12-ASH's Boomstick, since there's no other item with the string "boom" in it. Or you could simply type "g clay" for extra fun ;)

Addendum 2: Luigi's GPU Mod

Luigi has been working on implementing a mod that provides DirectX and OpenGL support for Cogmind, which can help speed up the game (FPS++!) for streamers, very old machines, or Wine on Mac/Linux.

You can check out his working (but still work-in-progress) in his forum thread here: https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1567.0