Cogmind Beta 11 Feature Voting
Added 2020-10-26 04:05:34 +0000 UTCIt's that time again, to vote for which of these features you want to see most in Beta 11! As a major release it will of course include many other things (many of which I've covered here on Patreon before), but among the following optional features, I'll implement whichever you all want to prioritize:
- (2) Full mouse UI for machine hacking: A set of mouse-driven menus would be added giving keyboard-free access to every single machine hack, including all (known) manual Trojans/brute force hacks. Technically this menu system would also be available and of use to keyboard players as well, listing every option. This feature would be optional, and by default probably on for Adventurer/Explorer and off for Rogue.
- (2) Revamped combat log: The combat log was thrown together shortly after the 7DRL in 2012 to satisfy player requests, not really designed for Cogmind's modern form. I'm honestly not sure how it would specifically be improved, but there have been multiple calls to do that in the past, so everyone can offer further suggestions if this is chosen.
- (2) On-map item searching and filtering: We already have some forms of filtering, but this feature would be interactive, allowing you to more quickly find specific or general items across the map or within just the current map view itself. Basically searching and filtering by type, name, partial name, etc. (The value for this was originally (1), as displayed in the poll, but due to the expanded nature of this feature since first envisioned I needed to set it to (2), but can't update the poll text itself.)
- (1) Inventory filtering: Quickly filter your inventory contents by type or other parameters, to reduce the number of items shown there and find things more quickly.
- (2) Item database: Although the current item gallery provides access to discovered item info, it was originally intended purely for ASCII art viewing (the first versions didn't even allow the info window!), thus it isn't great for quickly looking up info about items since that wasn't what it was designed for (although note that you can hit the first letter key of a target item's base name to skip to that section in the gallery!). A new interface would make it much easier to explore known items. (As of Beta 10 this may no longer be very high priority considering aoemica built the amazing Cog-Minder.)
- (2) Built-in lore searching: A new in-game interface would make it possible to search for references within the lore, and if possible maybe even highlight key terms and make those interactive as well.
- (2) In-game score history data and leaderboards: Instead of scorehistory.txt, stat overviews of future runs would be available via a new interface in the Records section (including sorting by score rank or time). With this we'd also get in-game global leaderboard support.
- (1) Part swap item info: Add item info to the part swap UI (probably optional).
- (2) Achievement progress indicators: Checkable progress towards unearned achievements in the current run, list of win achievements still available in the current run, list of achievements that will be earned if the run is won, and more.
- (2) In-game access to most advanced.cfg options: The majority of Cogmind's options are actually in this external text file (and described in the manual), but a separate menu system would be added to give easier access to most of them. (Just a few of those storing more complicated data might still only be accessible from the file itself.)
- (1) Support for map notes: Leave notes on the map, like the new message log feature except tied to map locations.
- (2) Full-screen "overmap": View the entirety of a map all at once (or almost an entire map in the case of very large ones). Would probably include some more features like note-taking. I've talked about this and showed a preliminary demo on Patreon before.
Everyone is encouraged to vote for more than one option, and this time the voting results will be handled a little differently: I'll be drawing up to "2 pts" of features from the results (those numbers in parenthesis), so if a (2) earns the most votes then that's what'll be implemented, but if a (1) is at the top then both that and the next (1) will make it into Beta 11. Voting is open and ongoing until I cut it off at some point, probably some weeks away since there's a lot of other stuff going on in the meantime.
Remember that anything that doesn't make it might still become part of the game one day, it'll just take [much] longer, or can be voted in for the next release, since I'll revive this same list (and probably continue expanding it) down the line :D
News
Beta 10.2 is complete! I've been doing little else besides working on what has turned into a rather big release (definitely doesn't seem like a minor .1 update xD), to come out... this Friday, Oct 30th. Up next I have to actually write the release announcements and do some other related prep work (some of which will be delayed since I'll be streaming Prospector again tomorrow).
Judging from the amount of work going into 10.2 and the planned 10.3, it's now looking like Beta 11 proper actually won't start development until the start of the new year. As eager as I am to just keep going non-stop, in between here I'm really going to need to take some time for other things :P
Also I forgot to mention in the last update that I released a new version of REXPaint, for those of you using that!
Comments
I dunno, I mean more people will probably benefit from the filtering overall, considering that the advanced config is already not that hard to access and modify, fully described in the manual, and once you make your changes there you basically never have to visit it again.
Kyzrati
2020-11-01 04:40:38 +0000 UTCCome on guys, item filtering. Really? I know its nice and all, but access to the adv. configs would be so much better
Lee
2020-11-01 02:41:15 +0000 UTCMost things on the voting list are *unlikely* to happen until/unless being voted for at some point, including the revamped combat log. Honestly I don't really want to do that one, but I know some players clearly do so it's on the list :P. Unlike the other options, I also *don't* have good solutions for improving it beyond just adding in some mechanics that might be missing, although I imagine if/when it comes time there will be more input from the community on that front :) In general I think it's pretty obvious from past and current performance that there's a lot of support for the combat log and it'll probably win a future vote as soon as I don't have something else more widely enticing on the list, heh (it's almost won before!).
Kyzrati
2020-10-29 21:55:13 +0000 UTCAs someone who really loves to see the details of the calculations and effects like damage overflow and whatnot I really hope the combat log revamp is coming, if not now then hopefully later.
J
2020-10-29 17:23:44 +0000 UTC
