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51
Ideas / Re: Scavengers imba, nerf pl0x
« on: May 29, 2015, 06:45:12 PM »At least on the first few levels shooting them does not feel worth it. Even if you hit you are not guaranteed to kill them, and they can grab and run faster than you can chase them off.Shoot at them before they pick up and they'll run away.
So you can be left with nothing if there are any present during a fight.
... this has been the end of my last few games today.
52
Ideas / Streamlining Schematic Downloads.
« on: May 29, 2015, 12:45:43 PM »
Hacking is for the most part pretty cool. Issues come into play when manual commands are introduced.
Right now, for an ideal chance to win* your best bet is to camp a terminal on the first floor, download every schematic, analyze every unit, and manufacture the perfect starting loadout. How you continue after that doesn't matter, every option in the game is now open to you.
You've got a +5% hit chance on every enemy in the game. You can manufacture whatever you want at given fabricators. And most of all, it'll take you around 100,000 turns to do so.
I don't think you should be able to do that. Not because it's overpowered, but because it's really boring and relies a boatload on meta-knowledge.
My issue is less manual commands and more being able to download schematics and analyze robots freely. I suggest schematic and analysis commands be streamlined and limited like the Inventory() commands are. Either limit what's there on a per-terminal basis or give things within a bound of usefulness and give multiple things per hack.
And higher level terminals should also have better schematics. You can get anything off a level 1 terminal.
*Not necessary, but in order to get the highest win chance
Right now, for an ideal chance to win* your best bet is to camp a terminal on the first floor, download every schematic, analyze every unit, and manufacture the perfect starting loadout. How you continue after that doesn't matter, every option in the game is now open to you.
You've got a +5% hit chance on every enemy in the game. You can manufacture whatever you want at given fabricators. And most of all, it'll take you around 100,000 turns to do so.
I don't think you should be able to do that. Not because it's overpowered, but because it's really boring and relies a boatload on meta-knowledge.
My issue is less manual commands and more being able to download schematics and analyze robots freely. I suggest schematic and analysis commands be streamlined and limited like the Inventory() commands are. Either limit what's there on a per-terminal basis or give things within a bound of usefulness and give multiple things per hack.
And higher level terminals should also have better schematics. You can get anything off a level 1 terminal.
*Not necessary, but in order to get the highest win chance
53
Ideas / Re: Specializations
« on: May 29, 2015, 12:35:24 PM »
Scanalyzers and Fabricators let you rebuild. Storage units are great for holding spare parts. Hcp. Storage Units are super beefy and will survive for a long while before they need replaced.
And when all else fails, terminal hacking allows you to make any build you want if you're patient enough.
And when all else fails, terminal hacking allows you to make any build you want if you're patient enough.
54
Ideas / Re: Specializations
« on: May 29, 2015, 11:53:27 AM »
OR you could just attach a part that does those things 
I think it's against the feel of the game to have permanent boosts like that. Modularity is what makes the game special.
I think it's against the feel of the game to have permanent boosts like that. Modularity is what makes the game special.
55
Fixed Bugs & Non-Bugs / Matter Loss on Storage Swap
« on: May 29, 2015, 10:42:05 AM »
If you equip, then unequip a matter storage unit the overflow will be destroyed.
I was hoping to be able to transfer matter to my larger storage units this way at a small matter cost, but instead I lost it all.
I was hoping to be able to transfer matter to my larger storage units this way at a small matter cost, but instead I lost it all.
56
General Discussion / How much does Purge Purge?
« on: May 29, 2015, 10:31:17 AM »
I used it like 10 times at Alert level 4 and it didn't lower it at all. Just how much do you have to use it?
57
Strategies / Re: How to deal with cave-ins?
« on: May 29, 2015, 10:15:09 AM »The mines are supposed to be risky, since going there is completely optional, and for other strategic reasons I can't reveal. Everything is designed with a purpose.It's not the risk that bugs me, it's being forced into quitting. Being killed I expect. Quitting is terrible.
That's also why there are always Mining Lasers at the entrance, and you may even find someone in the mines who will remind you not to be wandering around down there without one.
In short, the way the world is designed, the main complex always follows standard rules with no shenanigans, while you have no such guarantees in branches. The latter might throw some really weird stuff at you, and those areas have much wilder variations in the risk vs. reward spectrum. Just wait until later when all the superparts are only found in branches, but you might have to brave some very crazy stuff to get to them... And then once you get them you will be oh so happy...
But if you want a roguelike without curve balls, stay out of branches and go straight to the surface.
(That said, I should look into making the excavation squad a little more reliable, and I will. They really do sometimes get their butt kicked when they come to do their job.)
58
General Discussion / Re: Item Gallery Collection Percentage
« on: May 29, 2015, 10:10:48 AM »Wait, for reals? Aww man...This. Just give the tallies a x0 if you haven't attached it.
Seconding that 'should be able to view info' request though
59
General Discussion / Re: Early Alpha Impressions!
« on: May 29, 2015, 10:09:47 AM »
I've gotten the B-99 Schematic, but no fabricators allow you to make it.
Apparently it only takes 300 matter
Apparently it only takes 300 matter
60
Stories / Re: I escaped. AMA
« on: May 29, 2015, 01:03:50 AM »
Am I right in assuming this is the first win?
61
Strategies / Re: Super Hacking For Suicidal Robots
« on: May 29, 2015, 12:34:42 AM »
Allies are idiots. Make sure they never get anywhere near a fabricator. The Y run didn't do too well. Allies are surprisingly squishy.
9 slayers from floor -10 carried me through 2 floors... and destroyed the fabricators on both of them. Find a surviving terminal, get a fix on the fabber locations, and make the allies wait outside.
I have more things that can be added to the list of first floor fabbings.
A level 1 fabricator can make
Angular Momentum Engine
Nuclear Pulse Thruster
H-66 Slayer(200 matter each batch)
Level 1 Fabbers cap at rank 5. Once we know the cap for Level 2 hacking will get a whole lot better. 3 should be able to do just about anything, so it's just the midsection we're missing.
9 slayers from floor -10 carried me through 2 floors... and destroyed the fabricators on both of them. Find a surviving terminal, get a fix on the fabber locations, and make the allies wait outside.
I have more things that can be added to the list of first floor fabbings.
A level 1 fabricator can make
Angular Momentum Engine
Nuclear Pulse Thruster
H-66 Slayer(200 matter each batch)
Level 1 Fabbers cap at rank 5. Once we know the cap for Level 2 hacking will get a whole lot better. 3 should be able to do just about anything, so it's just the midsection we're missing.
62
Strategies / Re: z << Manual Command
« on: May 28, 2015, 11:58:47 PM »
Index(Machines) shows all machines on the map. It's glorious.
63
Strategies / Re: Super Hacking For Suicidal Robots
« on: May 28, 2015, 06:31:13 PM »
I think I'm ready for the next floor. I accidentally overloaded the only fabricator before I got comfortable.
64
Strategies / Re: Super Hacking For Suicidal Robots
« on: May 28, 2015, 03:54:28 PM »I developed this same strategy on my own, actually. It's really fun. A tip: Playing it safe can make a single interactive machine (terms, fabs) last forever and give you all that your heart desires. If you disconnect before trace is complete and wait 50 turns you get another shot at it.I didn't know it was only 50 turns. That's super handy, I've been waiting 1-200.
65
Strategies / Re: Super Hacking For Suicidal Robots
« on: May 28, 2015, 02:54:57 PM »I've been going terminal hacking heavy already I should really try this. I haven't had much luck with the gaining of minions, but maybe that's my next task.Assimilating is super risky. If you're below a 35% chance to do something to a robot, chances are you shouldn't do it. Rebooting is a lot safer and almost as good as an overload if you're carrying a spare weapon.
One of the benefits of hacking builds is later on you get to fabricate combat allies. Terminal hacks are for schematics, robot hacks are for reboots unless they're non-combatant. Then you can assimilate them to act as roaming spare parts.
66
Ideas / Re: Machine familiarity
« on: May 28, 2015, 02:19:57 PM »
Familiarity is with a particular model. You'll notice there are a bunch of differently shaped terminals. As you descend, new models pop up and you need to become familiar with them.
There's also the possibility you're experiencing an actual bug, which would suck.
There's also the possibility you're experiencing an actual bug, which would suck.
67
Fixed Bugs & Non-Bugs / Re: Schematic Text Box Cut Off
« on: May 28, 2015, 01:14:54 PM »
I'm not talking about the log, I'm talking about the schematic screen you access through the status window.
I don't know what all parts go off screen, but Remote Datajacks do for me.
I don't know what all parts go off screen, but Remote Datajacks do for me.
68
Strategies / Super Hacking For Suicidal Robots
« on: May 28, 2015, 11:34:26 AM »
This isn't a sure-fire win, or in a lot of cases even a good way of doing things. But it's fun. If you manage to get past the initial difficulty hump and fabricate your loadout things get very funny very fast.
The idea is to use only two weapon slots, Datajack and Remote Datajack. Once you get 3-4 Hacking suites you should be able to consistently reboot threats. Solo threats you can even try to assimilate! The Remote Datajack takes a hefty amount of matter to use, so overload non-hostiles when you get low.
Floor -11
Make darn sure you get a matter storage unit off the roaming ks. If possible, a regular storage unit off the rs.
Aside from that everything else is self explanatory.
Floor -10
This is probably the most important floor in getting set up.
Combat
Normal, kill every G, Y, s, o, and r you come across. If you can kill the ws, but they're annoying so don't feel it's necessary.
Every other unit you want to keep alive in case you get a datajack. When/if you do make sure to bump into them whenever they happen to be adjacent. Parse them for fun, the important bit is increasing familiarity.
Terminal Use
The important part of the level. Avoid getting locked out at all costs.
Commands should be input in this order.
Schematic(Hacking Suite) till success
Schematic(Remote Datajack) till success
These commands can take 2 floors to get. Don't sweat it if you don't get both by the end of the floor. If you happen to make it this far you can either try to fabricate on this floor or collect more useful schematics.
Useful commands in no particular order.
Schematic(Imp. Datajack) If you want to beef up your hacking game earlier
Schematic(Imp. Hacking Suite) Hard to download before you get hacking suites, but the upgrade is nice.
Schematic(Hcp. Matter Storage Unit) If you don't have one yet
Schematic(Hcp. Storage Unit) If you don't have at least a medium yet
Schematic(Insert propulsion here) If you want easy access to your preferred propulsion
Index(Fabricators) Getting the initial hacking suites helps a lot
Index(Scanalyzers) Scanning is easier than downloading schematics, if you have something you want on tap use these
Item Management
Until you get your bot army up to haul things for you, you'll need a storage unit.
Matter storage units are mandatory for any fabrication-based strategy. Thankfully everything you're making is cheap, Hcp. is ideal but you can make do with a med. More than one of anything but small is a waste.
When to ascend
Stay on this floor as long as possible hitting the terminals and non-hostiles as much as you can to increase familiarity. Get out when you hit double digit core integrity, not before.
Upgrades
If you feel like you'll get the remote jack by the end of -9
Utility x2
If you're a pansy
Power
Propulsion
Floor -9
The hard part. You won't have your hacking potential fully realized yet and ambushes can really mess you up.
Fabricating is the focus on this floor, make sure you find the fabbers fast and make sure you don't get locked out. You need at least 2 hacking suites by the end of this floor as well as a remote jack. If you've got those you should be set for the road ahead. A backup jack and spare matter are absurdly helpful as well
Avoid combat at this point, clearing the floor of hostiles is no longer a priority since you don't want to camp this floor. Reboot hostiles since the overload chances will be super slim, kill them with an off-weapon while they're down. Melee weapons tend to be the cheapest, but anything works. You have around 20 turns of them not hitting back.
Choke points are your friend. You can reboot something in a doorway to act as a roadblock for non-fliers if swarmed.
Upgrades
If you didn't take the power/propulsion before you can take it here. If you have enough hacking suites utility is better, but if you're running on empty go safe.
You should have either
Power 1
Propulsion 2
Utility 6
Weapon 2
or
Power 2
Propulsion 3
Utility 4
Weapon 2
Beyond Floor -9
At this point you can start branching out. 4 hacking/improved hacking suites are the goal, keep that in mind. If you have the hacking parts you can start building an army out of hijacked robots. Non-hostiles become walking matter storage and hostiles become your weapon slots. If you've got the 6 utility slots you can opt for power armor or a scanner.
I wouldn't delve into weapon upgrades/utilities unless you have to rebuild. 2 spare weapons is more than sufficient for most combat when your jacks are down, and the extra utility slots will save your like more often than a gauss rifle will.
You want a spare remote datajack in your inventory if possible. Matter storage units are helpful since it chews through matter. Make sure to overload non-hostiles when you run low.
The idea is to use only two weapon slots, Datajack and Remote Datajack. Once you get 3-4 Hacking suites you should be able to consistently reboot threats. Solo threats you can even try to assimilate! The Remote Datajack takes a hefty amount of matter to use, so overload non-hostiles when you get low.
Floor -11
Make darn sure you get a matter storage unit off the roaming ks. If possible, a regular storage unit off the rs.
Aside from that everything else is self explanatory.
Floor -10
This is probably the most important floor in getting set up.
Combat
Normal, kill every G, Y, s, o, and r you come across. If you can kill the ws, but they're annoying so don't feel it's necessary.
Every other unit you want to keep alive in case you get a datajack. When/if you do make sure to bump into them whenever they happen to be adjacent. Parse them for fun, the important bit is increasing familiarity.
Terminal Use
The important part of the level. Avoid getting locked out at all costs.
Commands should be input in this order.
Schematic(Hacking Suite) till success
Schematic(Remote Datajack) till success
These commands can take 2 floors to get. Don't sweat it if you don't get both by the end of the floor. If you happen to make it this far you can either try to fabricate on this floor or collect more useful schematics.
Useful commands in no particular order.
Schematic(Imp. Datajack) If you want to beef up your hacking game earlier
Schematic(Imp. Hacking Suite) Hard to download before you get hacking suites, but the upgrade is nice.
Schematic(Hcp. Matter Storage Unit) If you don't have one yet
Schematic(Hcp. Storage Unit) If you don't have at least a medium yet
Schematic(Insert propulsion here) If you want easy access to your preferred propulsion
Index(Fabricators) Getting the initial hacking suites helps a lot
Index(Scanalyzers) Scanning is easier than downloading schematics, if you have something you want on tap use these
Item Management
Until you get your bot army up to haul things for you, you'll need a storage unit.
Matter storage units are mandatory for any fabrication-based strategy. Thankfully everything you're making is cheap, Hcp. is ideal but you can make do with a med. More than one of anything but small is a waste.
When to ascend
Stay on this floor as long as possible hitting the terminals and non-hostiles as much as you can to increase familiarity. Get out when you hit double digit core integrity, not before.
Upgrades
If you feel like you'll get the remote jack by the end of -9
Utility x2
If you're a pansy
Power
Propulsion
Floor -9
The hard part. You won't have your hacking potential fully realized yet and ambushes can really mess you up.
Fabricating is the focus on this floor, make sure you find the fabbers fast and make sure you don't get locked out. You need at least 2 hacking suites by the end of this floor as well as a remote jack. If you've got those you should be set for the road ahead. A backup jack and spare matter are absurdly helpful as well
Avoid combat at this point, clearing the floor of hostiles is no longer a priority since you don't want to camp this floor. Reboot hostiles since the overload chances will be super slim, kill them with an off-weapon while they're down. Melee weapons tend to be the cheapest, but anything works. You have around 20 turns of them not hitting back.
Choke points are your friend. You can reboot something in a doorway to act as a roadblock for non-fliers if swarmed.
Upgrades
If you didn't take the power/propulsion before you can take it here. If you have enough hacking suites utility is better, but if you're running on empty go safe.
You should have either
Power 1
Propulsion 2
Utility 6
Weapon 2
or
Power 2
Propulsion 3
Utility 4
Weapon 2
Beyond Floor -9
At this point you can start branching out. 4 hacking/improved hacking suites are the goal, keep that in mind. If you have the hacking parts you can start building an army out of hijacked robots. Non-hostiles become walking matter storage and hostiles become your weapon slots. If you've got the 6 utility slots you can opt for power armor or a scanner.
I wouldn't delve into weapon upgrades/utilities unless you have to rebuild. 2 spare weapons is more than sufficient for most combat when your jacks are down, and the extra utility slots will save your like more often than a gauss rifle will.
You want a spare remote datajack in your inventory if possible. Matter storage units are helpful since it chews through matter. Make sure to overload non-hostiles when you run low.
69
Fixed Bugs & Non-Bugs / Schematic Text Box Cut Off
« on: May 28, 2015, 07:54:25 AM »
I went to look at Remote Datajack to see how much it cost to fab and the box is cut off at the fab time with no ability to scroll down.
70
General Discussion / Re: Early Alpha Impressions!
« on: May 28, 2015, 12:40:13 AM »
I suppose I'll dump my impressions in now that I've had a full* day with the game.
The Good
The game is pretty.
Particle effects are all great and the ASCII art gallery looks great. Can't comment on the tiles, I ditched them as soon as I could.
Transparency is mostly solid.
Stats are all there up front, and the controls are very well organized in the help screen.
Falling apart is cool.
Being able to rebuild him and having the technology is great. Literally becoming your enemy feels awesome.
Stealth is neat.
The information gathering bits are cool and zipping around at light speeds is fun.
The Bad
Meta-knowledge plays a key factor in hacking.
Knowing the commands in one thing, but express knowledge of every bot and item type down to the letter is Nethack tier. What's more, you can't access the gallery while inputting the commands, so you have to alt-tab or have a superb memory. AND the terminal punishes you for misspelling. I'd have put this in the Subjective category if meta-knowledge elimination weren't described as a design goal.
Most of the fonts are hard to read.
This has been brought up before, I'm just adding my name to the list of people saying it. I find 14/Crisp and 18/Narrow the easiest to read, but both are on the small side.
Controls aren't in the manual.
There's no external way to view the controls before you play. While ? is standard to roguelikes, esc is standard for just about every other game. I'm glad I've played a lot of roguelikes, otherwise finding the menu would have sucked.
The Entirely Subjective
Firefights are for the most part boring.
Making ranged combat fun in a roguelike is hard. DoomRL did it by having dodging be a key component. Caves of Qud and DCSS have neato magic effects. In Cogmind, you're punished for moving and most weapons do the same thing. AND you can't wield 6 katanas at once, or swing+shoot at melee range.
Falling apart feels terrible.
Few things are worse than feeling entirely helpless. The second systems start to fall off things start to suck. You don't just loose your power, you loose all your tactical options. What's more tearing enemies apart actively hurts you. What should be the fun part of blowing robots apart is bad all around for you since you loose the salvage.
Mouse UI is meh
Already made a thread about this but I'll sum it up here for completeness. Using a mouse is like trying to use a keyboard with 4 buttons instead of a mouse.
In Conclusion
I like the game. There are a lot of solid core concepts in it I like, and the attention to details that a number of roguelikes gloss over is stellar. But there's a lot of room for improvement, hopefully things will improve as the alpha, beta, gamma, and zeta dev cycles happen
*not full as in an 8 hour workday, just the world rotating oncish with however long played during that time
The Good
The game is pretty.
Particle effects are all great and the ASCII art gallery looks great. Can't comment on the tiles, I ditched them as soon as I could.
Transparency is mostly solid.
Stats are all there up front, and the controls are very well organized in the help screen.
Falling apart is cool.
Being able to rebuild him and having the technology is great. Literally becoming your enemy feels awesome.
Stealth is neat.
The information gathering bits are cool and zipping around at light speeds is fun.
The Bad
Meta-knowledge plays a key factor in hacking.
Knowing the commands in one thing, but express knowledge of every bot and item type down to the letter is Nethack tier. What's more, you can't access the gallery while inputting the commands, so you have to alt-tab or have a superb memory. AND the terminal punishes you for misspelling. I'd have put this in the Subjective category if meta-knowledge elimination weren't described as a design goal.
Most of the fonts are hard to read.
This has been brought up before, I'm just adding my name to the list of people saying it. I find 14/Crisp and 18/Narrow the easiest to read, but both are on the small side.
Controls aren't in the manual.
There's no external way to view the controls before you play. While ? is standard to roguelikes, esc is standard for just about every other game. I'm glad I've played a lot of roguelikes, otherwise finding the menu would have sucked.
The Entirely Subjective
Firefights are for the most part boring.
Making ranged combat fun in a roguelike is hard. DoomRL did it by having dodging be a key component. Caves of Qud and DCSS have neato magic effects. In Cogmind, you're punished for moving and most weapons do the same thing. AND you can't wield 6 katanas at once, or swing+shoot at melee range.
Falling apart feels terrible.
Few things are worse than feeling entirely helpless. The second systems start to fall off things start to suck. You don't just loose your power, you loose all your tactical options. What's more tearing enemies apart actively hurts you. What should be the fun part of blowing robots apart is bad all around for you since you loose the salvage.
Mouse UI is meh
Already made a thread about this but I'll sum it up here for completeness. Using a mouse is like trying to use a keyboard with 4 buttons instead of a mouse.
In Conclusion
I like the game. There are a lot of solid core concepts in it I like, and the attention to details that a number of roguelikes gloss over is stellar. But there's a lot of room for improvement, hopefully things will improve as the alpha, beta, gamma, and zeta dev cycles happen
*not full as in an 8 hour workday, just the world rotating oncish with however long played during that time
71
Strategies / Re: How to deal with cave-ins?
« on: May 27, 2015, 06:36:58 PM »
I really don't like that the excavation squad can all die/not show up. I ended up waiting 10,000 rounds before I quit.
I'm fine with being punished with a fight for not being prepared/following clues. Forced suicides are kinda BS.
I'm fine with being punished with a fight for not being prepared/following clues. Forced suicides are kinda BS.
72
Strategies / How to deal with cave-ins?
« on: May 27, 2015, 04:42:50 PM »
The log says an excavation team is being sent. I've waited 3000 turns and nothing has shown up. I've fired my medium laser to overheat 3 times and have been unable to remove a single tile.
What do I do?
What do I do?
73
Ideas / Re: Mouse UI Iprovements
« on: May 27, 2015, 07:17:06 AM »Fortunately Cogmind already does this! But, it's off by default because it pretty much has to be--you don't want that snaking line staring at you constantly. It looks terrible.It's a mouse-user option locked to the keyboard. This should be on when not in keyboard mode. When you're hovering over anything you can't move to it doesn't exist, the snake thing you have should be a non-issue 95% of the time. Brogue doesn't even bother with that. Please add a toggle in options.
Hold Ctrl-Alt for path highlighting.
As you suggest Cogmind does not have movement logic that changes drastically, so this feature isn't an absolute requirement, especially because when there are hostiles in sight, you can't even path to your destination at all! (Movement is handled one cell at a time in this scenario.)
And you could always dim the green to be less obtrusive.
Every command is accessible via mouse, but there are so many it could take a little while to learn them.I meant left click, that's my fault for wording things poorly. And it is slow. Using the mouse typically is a slow way of doing things.
Mouse wheel is just a secondary input option for waiting, while there's also '.' and 'numpad 5'.
Only accessible with modifiers isn't something I'd accept as an ideal UI constraint. Mouse use inherently has context modifiers you have to remember, adding keyboard inputs is a lot more intrusive than it is with a full keyboard setup.
There's a console specifically dedicated to ordering units purely via mouse clicks: F6 Allies control console. There are three ways in all to issue orders: The keyboard 'o' method, shift-RMB on map for context sensitive menu, or left-click on the ally listed in the Allies menu (again, F6). Or are you referring to something else?I had no idea that menu existed when I wrote this.
For mouse users, precisely because as you describe it could be really annoying and cover up content, this is accessible only with keyboard modifiers: Hold Ctrl-Shift.It works great in Brogue, and it hides SIGNIFICANTLY more of the screen than I'm suggesting without a delay. An option in the options menu would be grand.
while as soon as you learn that those letters are mapped to F5~F8 in a row, you both know what key to hit for each one and have a clear representation of what each window is for.I never remember which F it starts at and I end up hitting them in a line hoping it'll work any time I force myself to try keyboard inputs.
For mouse use, I made the decision that the UI is so full of features that it will be pretty much impossible to control secondary features purely via LMB/RMB, so I consider the requirement to use Ctrl/Shift for optional features within the realm of "normal mouse use." The other solution could be to add, but I rather dislike what that would look and play like...You could just add secondary commands to a right click menu just like the Windows OS does.
The game does a great job of being easy to pick up in a lot of ways, but playing with the mouse is frustrating right now. It's better than not having mouse controls, but only barely since you're forced to use the keyboard anyways.
74
Ideas / Wishful Thinking: Multi-Window Support
« on: May 27, 2015, 12:49:00 AM »
Angband and its variants have multi-window support.
And it's godly. Holy hell is it glorious. You can customize the font size on each individual window, you can resize them, you can pick which ones you want there, you can go completely without them. They're an optional feature that makes life easier for people whoknow it's there prefer them.
I think Cogmind would benefit by having something similar available. It'd allow for more(or less) space to be taken up by the map depending on your tastes. It'd allow multi-monitor setups to feel like massive robot access terminals. Most of all, it'd allow my ally and calc windows up simultaneously.
I have no idea if it's even remotely feasible without a massive rewrite, and I doubt it'd be doable within any sort of shortish timeframe. Like the thread title says, this is entirely wishful thinking.
And it's godly. Holy hell is it glorious. You can customize the font size on each individual window, you can resize them, you can pick which ones you want there, you can go completely without them. They're an optional feature that makes life easier for people who
I think Cogmind would benefit by having something similar available. It'd allow for more(or less) space to be taken up by the map depending on your tastes. It'd allow multi-monitor setups to feel like massive robot access terminals. Most of all, it'd allow my ally and calc windows up simultaneously.
I have no idea if it's even remotely feasible without a massive rewrite, and I doubt it'd be doable within any sort of shortish timeframe. Like the thread title says, this is entirely wishful thinking.
75
Ideas / Mouse UI Iprovements
« on: May 26, 2015, 04:49:14 PM »
Keyboard is king, don't let anybody ever tell you I said otherwise.
That said, a good mouse interface helps a metric faceton in easing people into the keyboard layout. It also allows for users with terribly unergonomic keyboards to not develop carpal tunnel while playing. *cough*
For the most part the Cogmind UI is superb, but I have some gripes. Brogue has the best mouse interface of any roguelike I've played, so I'm using that as reference.
Highlighting the pathing is a must.
I cannot stress how absolutely unnerving it is playing with a mouse and not knowing how my path will play out.
In Brogue the path actually modifies itself under certain conditions. I don't get the impression Cogmind has movement logic that changes as drastically, but it's important to be able to see it. Especially when something is in the way, but that has a thread already.
Access to every command with only one click is ideal.
Right and left mouse can be assumed, but they shouldn't be when possible. Mouse wheel should never be used for frequently used precision commands like wait. The difference between 3 and 4 rounds can mean the difference between getting your weapon blown off.
Context sensitive commands are nice and all, but forcing fire is vital for anybody using explosives.
The only way I know of to order a unit involves the keyboard.
Brogue uses command drop-down menus. Each menu highlights the key used for the command for keyboard users and people transitioning. You have a wonderfully implemented multi-terminal menu system, adding a command port to one(or more) of them is probably feasible and would be a welcome addition.
Hover-text is absurdly handy.
The scan window is great, but it separates the information from the location. An option to have names appear on hover would be great. I understand there's a boatload to visually parse already and scanning over things would be annoying, so I suggest a user-definable wait time.
Minor tidbits
That ? in the corner of the screen is so small I needed a magnifying glass to notice it existed.
This last one isn't a mouse gripe, but your log window doesn't display its binds. L/A/I/C should really be F5/F6/F7/F8.
I'll probably think of more things later, but for these are the things that were glaring at me in my first few games.
That said, a good mouse interface helps a metric faceton in easing people into the keyboard layout. It also allows for users with terribly unergonomic keyboards to not develop carpal tunnel while playing. *cough*
For the most part the Cogmind UI is superb, but I have some gripes. Brogue has the best mouse interface of any roguelike I've played, so I'm using that as reference.
Highlighting the pathing is a must.
I cannot stress how absolutely unnerving it is playing with a mouse and not knowing how my path will play out.
In Brogue the path actually modifies itself under certain conditions. I don't get the impression Cogmind has movement logic that changes as drastically, but it's important to be able to see it. Especially when something is in the way, but that has a thread already.
Access to every command with only one click is ideal.
Right and left mouse can be assumed, but they shouldn't be when possible. Mouse wheel should never be used for frequently used precision commands like wait. The difference between 3 and 4 rounds can mean the difference between getting your weapon blown off.
Context sensitive commands are nice and all, but forcing fire is vital for anybody using explosives.
The only way I know of to order a unit involves the keyboard.
Brogue uses command drop-down menus. Each menu highlights the key used for the command for keyboard users and people transitioning. You have a wonderfully implemented multi-terminal menu system, adding a command port to one(or more) of them is probably feasible and would be a welcome addition.
Hover-text is absurdly handy.
The scan window is great, but it separates the information from the location. An option to have names appear on hover would be great. I understand there's a boatload to visually parse already and scanning over things would be annoying, so I suggest a user-definable wait time.
Minor tidbits
That ? in the corner of the screen is so small I needed a magnifying glass to notice it existed.
This last one isn't a mouse gripe, but your log window doesn't display its binds. L/A/I/C should really be F5/F6/F7/F8.
I'll probably think of more things later, but for these are the things that were glaring at me in my first few games.