This idea is from the Cataclysm DDA forum. In this thread we post funny but still terrible ideas and bad suggestions.
I'll start with a few I thought of and saw in the discord.
* Building your own garrisons that you can call your own reinforcements from
* Building your own complex that you take ownership of
* Fabricator-fabrication machines
Also, there was this whole chatlog from discord:
Spoiler
lsend - Last Wednesday at 1:22 PM
Off topic, can you reprogram and collect chutes trap?
And consequently visit waste on final floors?
DDarkray - Last Wednesday at 1:28 PM
Nope, I've tried that. :frowning:
Neither can you extract alarm and ambush traps.
Regalus27 - Last Wednesday at 1:28 PM
That would be hilarious
Portable hole
DDarkray - Last Wednesday at 1:29 PM
Portable black hole
Regalus27 - Last Wednesday at 1:31 PM
Throw a boss in it
DDarkray - Last Wednesday at 1:32 PM
Put a chute trap at Waste
Then put another chute into that Waste
Chute-ception
:thinkception:
Mojopoop - Last Wednesday at 1:33 PM
put 9 chute traps together and drop the fortress or mainC into it
Regalus27 - Last Wednesday at 1:36 PM
Dun dun dun
Sherlockkat - Last Wednesday at 1:37 PM
We need a chute dlc
after the wheels dlc
Regalus27 - Last Wednesday at 1:38 PM
Guns that shoot chutes
DDarkray - Last Wednesday at 1:41 PM
Guns that chute bullets
Mojopoop - Last Wednesday at 1:42 PM
com. chute
bugsniper - Last Wednesday at 1:44 PM
Faulty chutes that they get reinforcements from
DDarkray - Last Wednesday at 1:47 PM
Crushing reinforcements
Reflective shield which reflects all projectiles back at enemies so you can walk through the complex while hostiles murder themselves.
Shaft traps which send you back a number of floors so you can explore the complex indefinitely.
Quote from: zxc on December 25, 2017, 03:19:41 AM
Reflective shield which reflects all projectiles back at enemies so you can walk through the complex while hostiles murder themselves.
You mean Lightsabers! Slashing weapon that deals TH damage and deflects some projectiles; combined with appriopriate processor it can deflect projectiles reliably at nearby hostiles.
A shortcut from Mines to -1/Command. Maybe call it the Speedrunner's Death.
Okay now I know this is supposed to be the "bad suggestions" thread, but seriously you guys have hit on at least one thing I have actually planned to do at some point xD
Try harder! ;)
* Trap which spews more of itself when triggered
* Piece of armour which itself is 100% resistant to damage, but its integrity reduces by 1 each turn and when it reaches 0 it explodes, instantly killing you.
I'm trying to come up with shitty ideas here. Maybe we need to go deeper shitter.
* Pancake wheel. You can ram bots with it to instantly cook them. They usually melt in one hit. Flames sometimes burst out because you've overcooked their cores.
Shooting proton cannons should create water as a product of chemical reactions.
Water bomb. Short out sensitive electronics. High chance of disabling processors and causing corruption.
Water hazards in the levels, too.
Spoiler
Being a planet that can apparently support life (at least one human) there should be some water around, no? Or did he scurry around in an environment suit the entire time?
lol. Stop it you guys!
Spring Propulsion - legs speed, but lets you jump over enemies. Oh, and don't forget to use appropriate sound effect when implementing this.
But seriously. This thread needs to be deleted.
Quote from: bugsniper on December 25, 2017, 11:33:00 AM
Shooting proton cannons should create water as a product of chemical reactions.
Hahaha, this one's great.
Spoiler
Quote from: Joshua on December 25, 2017, 03:49:42 PMOr did he scurry around in an environment suit the entire time?
That was more or less my thought, plus it's a couple hundred years in the future so it's not unreasonable that they'd have some really good and comfortable space survival tech.
Steps and staircases, to add a practical weakness to wheels and treads.
Half-height terrain 'cover' which reduces damage/accuracy if shots are fired through it at sufficient distance.
* You can prime explosives and keep them in your inventory.
* 500$ golden Cogmind DLC.
* A [REDACTED] exoskeleton rampaging in the complex, hostile to all.
* Swarmers are manufactured by mobile carriers/hives/creepy mechanical spiders, matter attract them.
* Hunters with exploding drones.
* Crossover random encounters.
- A bunch of dwarves definitely dug too deep.
- Some humanoid machine mumbling about net terminal genes.
- Crowbar melee weapon.
- Experimental cardboard box cloaking device.
- Rare "THIS CANNOT CONTINUE" message upon destroying a recycler.
Let your drones enter exits and explore next floors.
Buff System Backup Modules so that they let you freely switch between cr, zion and original "firmware"
Self-destruct interrupters should stop engine explosions. I'm sure they would under nethack logic.
Quote from: lsend on December 26, 2017, 01:23:08 PM
Let your drones enter exits and explore next floors.
This is epic bad idea.
Since there are double slot items, why not have half slot items? Processors would be good candidates.
Okay now there is a collection of seriously bad ideas in here :P
(fun to muse over though!)
Quote from: lsend on December 30, 2017, 02:29:45 PM
Since there are double slot items, why not have half slot items? Processors would be good candidates.
Facepalm
Hands. They carry much less weight than legs but give you a hacking bonus.
(https://image.ibb.co/g04kHG/IMG_0505.jpg)
More awesome challenge mode ideas:
1) Drunkmind: Start with 5% corruption after ascending each floor. Every move you make will always trigger misdirection, and 20% chance to trigger misfire.
2) Endless Mode: After reaching the surface, go back to -11 Scrapyard instead of winning. Reset all events triggered via branches as if you've never visited any branches. All your stats and items are kept.
Those two sound like some older suggestions actually. Passive corruption gain was suggested a couple times as a challenge mode. New game+ would be cool. You retain your build in new scrapyard but the enemies are scaled up. Could be a very interesting experience... or terrible, IDK.
Introduce the notion of front, back, left and right and add rotation movement. This would allow directional effects like directional vision, sensors, armors, shields and so on.
Quote from: lsend on January 03, 2018, 01:09:03 AM
Introduce the notion of front, back, left and right and add rotation movement. This would allow directional effects like directional vision, sensors, armors, shields and so on.
Funny enough, Cogmind technically had this when it was born, as all the code was from X@COM, but I removed it :P (in that game there's directional vision, including different armors that narrow or widen the FOV depending on how obstructive they are)
Quote from: lsend on December 30, 2017, 02:29:45 PM
Since there are double slot items, why not have half slot items? Processors would be good candidates.
I think similar items should be allowed to stack on top of each other i.e. adv. targeting computer could stack with exp. targeting computer. As well as the benefit you would get from multiple parts only using one slot, if one were to get blown off you would have many more still equipped. I feel this would reduce frustration on the part of the player. And it would make finding a large stash of items worthwhile, rather than leave most of the items on the ground.
How about adding a portal gun? There could be a new challenge to escape in the least amount of moves.
Quote from: zill on January 06, 2018, 03:30:01 AM
How about adding a portal gun? There could be a new challenge to escape in the least amount of moves.
You could make it as variant of chutes trap.
I am full of bad ideas.
Remove evolutions, add experience points to the game. Want to get those slots? Have fun grinding recycler and grunt kills for that delicious exp. Sorry pacifists.
Add classes. Now you can finally be a level 5 cogmind priest. What's better for taking on the big bad in Command, a high level cogmind barbarian or a multiclassed cogmind rogue/mage?
New branch whose rewards can only be obtained by solving the RiddleBot's conundrums. Riddles procedurally generated each run.
Replace all sentries with behemoths.
Replace all swarmers with imps.
Add mimics: robots that look like desirable items until you step onto them, at which point they spring to life and attack.
Give Cogmind a love interest.
New unauthorized hacks that let you prank call Command.
Pay to win. Paypal over a mere $1.00 and instantly reset core to 100.
Merchandising, merchandising, merchandising: plushy versions of Cogmind 'n friends.
New ending where you sit all factions down and work out your differences through constructive dialogue.
New ending revealing that all events were Zhirov's dream after a night of too much vodka and seafood on the Cetus.
WOW, that is a stunningly awesome and hilarious list of things we'll never see!
(Except mimics. Maybe we need derelict mimics.)
Facepalm
Quote from: Happylisk on January 07, 2018, 06:09:03 PMPay to win. Paypal over a mere $1.00 and instantly reset core to 100.
The best thing about this one is that 100 core is a pittance, unless you mean 100%.
Quote from: Kyzrati on January 07, 2018, 06:14:32 PM
(Except mimics. Maybe we need derelict mimics.)
I thought this is supposed to be a bad idea.All scrap piles found in caves have a chance to contain pests.
Add a crafting system! If you assimilate a tinkerer, you can give it some items to craft new derelict items.
Enable engineers to be hacked and assimilated. Instead of giving ally engineers an ability to construct terrain objects, give it an ability to construct Behemoths. Requires having all part components in your inventory, lots of matter, and has a long construction time to complete. Having multiple engineers can speed up the construction.
Ally serfs adjacent to you can produce fluff messages for cleaning and dusting off your parts. May accidentally damage your part by 1 integrity.
Make it possible to generate a current score sheet on demand. Or add an option to automatically generate it on entering new level. Hell, you could even auto upload such partial score sheets, and use them for leaderboards.
Add checkpoints. When you die, you can resurrect from the last checkpoint, but you losing maximum core integrity (stacks down to 0)
A heat effect that melts equipment onto you, keeping you from removing it. Sorry, melted equipment can only be destroyed in combat.
Quote from: bugsniper on January 09, 2018, 11:36:44 AM
A heat effect that melts equipment onto you, keeping you from removing it. Sorry, melted equipment can only be destroyed in combat.
Interesting idea. Not bad, actually.
Not at all good for the game itself--too much pressure on the core mechanic, but we already have a more extreme version of this in the form of Sticky Parts challenge.
Special option to play a random challenge mode that randomizes after each evolution.
A level that's entirely a maze of chute traps.
Chute traps in the wastes
A way to pack chutes with explosives so that you don't have to face crushers when you enter.
Also, how about a possibility to expand the garrison entrance instead when you think you're going to destroy it, letting out the behemoths.
Trap array subscripting to pick a single trap. Traps[3](Disarm) if you just really need its position.
A Trap Launcher that hurls a randomly chosen trap item from your inventory over a long distance, and then installs it onto the ground automatically.
A Trapper Drone that manufactures and installs traps, but has a long cooldown between use.
An Imp. Trap Launcher that hurls several trap items over a long distance using the cone-shaped spread mechanic. Lay down a minefield all at once!
Add another ending with New Game +: you get imprinted by the complex, then become Detectivemind and put together clues to track down the rampaging LRC-V4. Genre change!
Also, replace one of -7 through -3 (randomly chosen each game) with the special Blockmind branch. Obstruct, hack, and manipulate the new engineer-type Subcontractor bots and their terrain as squads of them carry four-piece prefabs to get them placed together in critical masses that blow up to fill a chasm with garbage so you can get across to the exit.
Wallmind. You explore the complex via walls, not the floor. Avoid tunnelers and cheer on builders! To make things harder, there is a major derelict invasion in progress, involving a lot of explosives.
Inspired by zxc's bad suggestion....
Quantum Tunnelling Robots: Bad guys that can occupy and travel within wall tiles. If it's moving near you, it will let out a soft growling sound that can be heard via log messages. Ambushes you by coming out of the wall.
New lighting system. Tiles may be light, dark, or a shade in between. In the dark, only hunters can spot you out of the regular complex bots. However, beware the branches for they may hide Gruebots in the dark.
Invisible robots - can only be detected by sensors.
Stairways can now move slowly when not in line of sight.
Fake exits which appear to lead to the next floor but actually chute you.
Factory floors now have a random chance to be replaced by cave floors instead.
Combat recyclers - Heavily armored, use flight, no longer run away when shot at, and teleport away when they pick up an item.
Quote from: Amphouse on January 19, 2018, 07:59:51 PM
Combat recyclers - Heavily armored, use flight, no longer run away when shot at, and teleport away when they pick up an item.
These are great. How about making them attract items at a distance, too?
Unique sensor array with an inverted range, that is FROM instead of UP TO.
Quote from: Amphouse on January 19, 2018, 07:59:51 PM
Invisible robots - can only be detected by sensors.
This actually sounds cool. Hunters who are invisible until they fire, but can be spotted with sensors if you have good enough signal interpreters.
Quote from: zxc on January 24, 2018, 01:21:43 AM
This actually sounds cool. Hunters who are invisible until they fire, but can be spotted with sensors if you have good enough signal interpreters.
I actually considered this early on, but the idea didn't seem too interesting because enemies will generally fire on you as soon as they have LOS anyway. So an enemy with this mechanic would need to have some other kinds of abilities.
Quote from: Kyzrati on January 24, 2018, 05:02:41 AM
I actually considered this early on, but the idea didn't seem too interesting because enemies will generally fire on you as soon as they have LOS anyway. So an enemy with this mechanic would need to have some other kinds of abilities.
Just give this ability to melee attackers like.....Combat Imps. :D
Yeah that's certainly a line of thinking I had as well, but it's not very fun like that. I mean ambushes are bad enough. Mobile ambushes?
Haha COMBAT IMPS.
Yes we're in the right thread!
Quote from: Kyzrati on January 24, 2018, 05:02:41 AM
Quote from: zxc on January 24, 2018, 01:21:43 AM
This actually sounds cool. Hunters who are invisible until they fire, but can be spotted with sensors if you have good enough signal interpreters.
I actually considered this early on, but the idea didn't seem too interesting because enemies will generally fire on you as soon as they have LOS anyway. So an enemy with this mechanic would need to have some other kinds of abilities.
Maybe they can re-cloak when they're repositioning or flanking or something.
Combo propulsion: flying wheels, hover treads.
You should be able to tractor beam other robots and have them tow/slingshot/jetski you around the level.
Haha "jetskiing." They're pulling you along and turn a corner and you go swinging around the corner, too, firing at bots along the way until you smash into the far wall :P
Would be rather cool if the Cogmind world were filled with ghost robots who you can't see unless you equip the right sensors. They don't interact with anything and you just pass right through them, but it would be eerie AF.
Bad enough idea?
Getting worse! Cogmind-horror mashup.
When you die, you get to write a note and leave it where you died, which gets uploaded to the server.
Future games sometimes reuse old seeds from the server and the player might stumble across the note.
Yeah I've thought of roguelikes based around interactivity between players before, that just being one form of it. In Cogmind this would be highly inappropriate given the lore (bad idea success!), but there are so many cool things that could be done with these ideas which I am totally incapable of doing, and have no time for anyway xD
This is more of a meta bad idea: Kyzrati could write the Ultimate Strategy Guide and sell it for more than the game.
With cheat codes at the end which you can only get if you successfully pass a test.
Turn based games promote overthinking things, indecision, and degenerate strategies. Make cogmind realtime instead of turn based, changing nothing else. Hope you're a fast typer if you like to hack a lot.
Make Cogmind simultaneous turn-based. It is then possible to dodge attacks because the enemy may fire where you were standing previously, but you dodged on the same turn. Luring a train of enemies through chokepoints causes a massive traffic jam, increasing realism.
Item launcher: damage depends on the mass and type of item used as ammo.
Because, why not throw wheels at enemies?
From discord: A final boss 2x2 combat recycler that excavates walls in the way, eats terminals and staircases, and takes players to the chutes.
Also, a transdimensonal portal machine that takes you to a level in the another seed.
Realistic ambient sounds for the propulsion you have active:
* Squeaky wheels.
* Heavy diesel engines for treads.
* 130 dB jet turbines for flight units.
* etc.
One really BIG idea:
a) With every evolution not only slots count is increasing, but also size of the Cogmind. So, it will become 2x2 like behemoth at -9, than 3x3 like borebot... and something like 10x10 at the end of the game. Player should quickly find a good launcher or swords or something else to force their way to stairs, becaue Cogmind quickly will become too large to go through most of the corridors. ;D Also every time when Cogmind increases it's size, it more effectively crashes enemies (and from some point - items on the ground on which he passed). So if, for example, 5x5 Cogmind steps on the chute trap, he doesn't need to worry about anything because he can compact all compactors in the wastes. ;D Also big enough Cogmind can take on board allies and carry them like a bus or something like that. Allies are safe in the big Cogmind and enemies can't reach them. :D
b) Additional ending: if Cogmind reach surface with enough allies on board, they decide to go away from Complex and create a home inside of the Cogmind to live in peace in it. So, Cogmind continues increasing it's size to make life of his inhabitants more comfortable. And then new robots somehow hear about great new home and come to live in it, and it increasing even more to accommodate everyone... At the end it becomes a new Complex - Complex 0b11. So Cogmind surprisingly recognizes that Complex 0b10 and 0b1 are also just the overgrown Cogminds themselfs...
P.S. Amazing thread! ;D ;D ;D
Now
that is an epic idea! It could lead into the one we were talking about not too long ago, where Cogmind is basically a DF game depicted in MojoPoop's mashups:
Spoiler
(https://i.imgur.com/ljpKDTd.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/dT9AJsJ.png)
(And welcome to what has become the most popular thread of late :P)
Zionites spas where you can relax and turn tan while the attendants shoot em guns at you.
New item: a bucket with yellow dye. It will be using just like a trap: drop item from inventory and put to the ground. Than stay on it and press ">". After that, your Cogmind will be painted in yellow, so all main.c's bots will think that you are one of them and will not attack you anymore.
There is the animated illustration in attachment, about how it supposed to work:
I can't stop laughing.
Quote from: DDarkray on January 02, 2018, 08:19:26 AM
2) Endless Mode: After reaching the surface, go back to -11 Scrapyard instead of winning. Reset all events triggered via branches as if you've never visited any branches. All your stats and items are kept.
Variant I thought up on the Discord: While you ascend through the Complex, the Complex has continued to expand and send its technology downwards, so the Scrapyard is no longer in -11. Instead, for every time you've reached the surface the Complex has built a new floor (so on your first loop back to the bottom you start in -12, on the next loop you start in -13, and so forth). Naturally, technology trickles down alongside the building process, so each floor becomes harder on every loop. And to support the expansion and make good use of all the floors, the overall areas gradually move down too - so eventually -8 will be fully mined out and converted over to a Factory floor for more building, then -4 will be converted to provide more Research space, then -2 gets converted to put more depth between Research and the surface...
It would be a bit odd to make new branches for the new depths, but the inhabitants of branches might continue responding to the expansion process.
Quote from: Laida on February 21, 2018, 02:52:53 PM
New item: a bucket with yellow dye. It will be using just like a trap: drop item from inventory and put to the ground. Than stay on it and press ">". After that, your Cogmind will be painted in yellow, so all main.c's bots will think that you are one of them and will not attack you anymore.
There is the animated illustration in attachment, about how it supposed to work:
What an IFF bypass! XD
After reaching the surface, game turns into ASCII 3D-shooter, in which you make your way through the fake city to the Sigix ship and fight with robots, coming out from the entrances to the Complexes. :D
Haha that would be a great surprise xD
Actually...
(SPOILER if you haven't won before and seen the ending!)
In my original plans for the first section of the ending sequence, although you wouldn't have control over it I wanted there to be robots stationed outside to guard the Tor, and as you approached it you link up and start activating external weapons that blast them all while you make a run for the ship. Not 3D though, just an overview :P
There are certainly a lot of fun ways to think about how Cogmind could continue after winning/escaping. Whole other games or mechanics :)
Cogmind / Dwarf Fortress mashup as a
prequel, where you play out the backstory from the perspective of MAIN.C.
New game creation screen: (some actual Cogmind spoilers)
Spoiler
(https://imgur.com/2Pz12kb.png)
Great mockup! For sequel ideas I've certainly spent a lot of time thinking of potential scenarios moving
forward in the timeline, but not so much backward :)
Spoiler
Would be funny to just keep going back with different games, eventually reaching even all the way back in the timeline to when humans are defending the Solar System.
Quote from: Laida on February 27, 2018, 11:30:05 PM
Quote from: b_sen on February 27, 2018, 02:24:16 PM
New game creation screen:
Wow, nice art! :D
Quote from: Kyzrati on February 27, 2018, 05:57:07 PM
Great mockup!
Thanks!
Quote from: Kyzrati on February 27, 2018, 05:57:07 PM
For sequel ideas I've certainly spent a lot of time thinking of potential scenarios moving forward in the timeline, but not so much backward :)
Spoiler
Would be funny to just keep going back with different games, eventually reaching even all the way back in the timeline to when humans are defending the Solar System.
Forward is generally the more natural direction, but in this particular case backward works nicely with the timeline because it's clear in Cogmind that MAIN.C has already been pretty successful at managing and expanding a "fortress"
Spoiler
- and the twists of deliberately provoking a Sigix investigation once Complex 0b1 is ready and then building Complex 0b10 also fit well -
so no retcons are needed between games. The challenge would be somewhat different from Dwarf Fortress though, as MAIN.C's robots are a lot less finicky and more single-minded than DF's dwarves. XD (Maybe you can't micromanage them instead, to line up with observed "glitches" in the behavior of 0b10 bots?)
Spoiler
It would be even funnier if they all drew from different genres; perhaps even X@COM-style missions for the Solar War.
Challenge mode: Hackers. All patrols and dispatches replaced with Combat Programmers. The starting area has a Flight Unit, Hacking Suite and Datajack to give you a ghost of a chance.
Also, add Combat Thieves with 10 speed and Imp. Tearclaws that have 100% chance to rip off your favorite items.
Shoptown - to be honest I am not quite sure this is a bad idea lorewise because efficient markets would seem to fit in with some of the Imprinter's ideas about evolution. And Packrats and Thieves need some place to fence their stolen goods, of course. But adding money to the game would make it a tremendously different game. :)
Quote from: Joshua on March 11, 2018, 07:57:13 PM
Shoptown - to be honest I am not quite sure this is a bad idea lorewise
Well if I ever get that far, to be honest this has been a major feature in my notes for a very long time, but I can't go into the details here because it may never happen, dunno.
However, this at least makes clear it's not a terrible or inappropriate idea ;)
Grease Gun: cause bots with ground-based propulsion to slide backwards a distance proportional to the recoil of weapons fired by them and also recoil from incoming volleys. Nullifies the effect of treads. If they slide into a wall or another robot, stop the slide and cause impact damage to both.
It should be standard equipment on the Combat Mechanic. ;)
Hahaha, Combat Mechanic xD. I love how "Combat X" is one of the go-to terms for making a fearsome new version of a bot. The most common one by far at this point is Combat Swarmers, although that's a fairly serious request, something to strike fear into the hearts of evasive flying hackminds...
Also common is the much less serious 2x2 Recycler boss :P
Give first-time players a vision test. For people who fail, the game just plays dwarf fortress instead.
Or plays (http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=15.msg7390#msg7390) this (http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=15.msg7392#msg7392) :P
Quote from: Kyzrati on March 21, 2018, 08:01:32 AM
Or plays (http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=15.msg7390#msg7390) this (http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=15.msg7392#msg7392) :P
Yup, that's the correct Dwarf Fortress-like game to play instead. Getting a Cogmind to the surface can even still be a win condition! :P (Just not by piloting it yourself...)
Endgame spoilers, including likely extended endgame content:
Spoiler
Obviously if you're getting a Cogmind to the surface in this scenario, you want it to unknowingly deliver itself to what remains of the human military instead of, say, delivering your technology to the Sigix. An alternate, much harder, win condition would be to overcome the sabotage of whoever doesn't want you to have teleportation technology and defeat them.
E and 0b1 spoilers:
Spoiler
Have getting all the way through the Extension branch series provide a deeply-hidden secret option to break into Complex 0b1 and escape that way. What unique dangers might a neglected Complex provide?
Challenge mode: Alien Invader. You're
so different from MAIN.C's robots that you don't even have part slots; your slots are replaced by the option to permanently integrate a corresponding number of beyond-prototype-special items. (The list of said items may have to be somewhat revised...) In exchange for the
much better average item quality and the fact that your build can't be shot off, you have no build flexibility and 100% core exposure.
A Cogmind imprint of reading glasses. Advise people based on a reading test and their monitor size which one to choose.
Melee combat should be more simulationist. It really shouldn't take the same amount of time to hack through a wall with a Particle Cleaver or Plasma Sword as with a Katana. Instead, open a side-scrolling 2D robot-vs-robot combat window where you use X, Y, A and B to chain combos against that wall... :)
Radiation contamination:
When nuclear reactor explodes, some area near it is exposed to radiation contamination. All robots in this area mutate and their class changes to "derelict - mutant"
...and they should get another slot and pick up a suitable part.
Combat operators that shut down all nearby terminals and summon more reinforcements for each one.
Cursed items. Random chance for items you pick up, and ones that become non-functional, to actually provide maluses and become non-removable until blown off. That Hvy. Armor Plating you just equipped suddenly provides -100% EM resist. Now you'll really be scared of getting scanned...
Haha!
(On a serious historical note, the idea of "prototypes" originally emerged from the roguelike concept of cursed items, though obviously reworked for the mechanics of Cogmind.)
The more interesting curses are the ones that come with a huge bonus, like the One Ring. Invisibility but you get regular Ringwraith dispatches. Perhaps a high-powered EM weapon that acts as a signal generator when used (because of all the RF traffic in the area disrupting maintenance, etc.) and calls down assaults. Things like that. :) But that might not be in bad idea territory anymore, since there already some late game choices along those lines.
Storage Units should act more like bags of holding - they should keep their contents when dropped, or if you scan one and fabricate a duplicate. :D
A more corporate variant of Cogmind which cannot use prototypes or hacking suites and is only corrupted by combat programmers. -50% core integrity because you're coated in glass.
When we implement a market with repair shops, Corporate Cogmind has to pay double because, even after the collapse of civilization, their legal task force remains litigious and their algorithms continue to enforce their patents.
EM damage should have a chance of mutating Cogmind and granting superpowers like become immune to all projectile damage, see through walls and inside robots inventory, and time travel.
Robot Launchers that fire a Rocket Propelled Carrier which breaks apart and unleashes a cloud of Swarmers and Imps around the target.
Nanoswarm Launcher: acts like a datajack attack for every robot caught in its radius, with a high chance of causing disruption if the datajack connection fails.
Corporate Cogmind cannot attach visual processing units due to "business conflicts".
A new unauthorized hack: DSI9AT1D G8OHIBQ29FWG 26R186 QD12WHW8W33 TDK1 81FTS
Spoiler
ALERT: Alien menace detected. Entering High Security. Intercept Squads Dispatched.
Your doppelganger spawns somewhere on each floor and roams around. It is hostile only with you.
A variant of Cogmind, which can use faulty components. They are stuck to you like sticky parts and occasionally redo the bad effect that happened when you put them on. One drawback is that you need to reboot for updates every 1000 turns in the main dungeon, but you get plenty of warning about this.
Achievement: Chuck Norris.
Spoiler
Enter C naked, with no inventory, and get a ++ win. Good luck.
Edited to make less spoilery.
Field Reconfiguration Unit. Lets you add and remove parts from allied robots. Give your army of grunts missile launchers.
Quote from: TBExtent on June 16, 2018, 03:59:21 PM
Field Reconfiguration Unit. Lets you add and remove parts from allied robots. Give your army of grunts missile launchers.
This actually sounds awesome.
When a person says the game's worth only $5, refund the remainder and replace their files with a 2014 alpha so that theirs and only theirs is actually worth $5.
Oh man that is... quite an idea xD
For now I'll point them to POLYBOT-7, and if they go lower there's also the Cogmind 7DRL from 2012 :P
QuoteReflective shield which reflects all projectiles back at enemies so you can walk through the complex while hostiles murder themselves.
This idea is actually awesome. :p
Perhaps ALL projectiles is a little far fetched (which on this thread is a good thing). I'd imagine it as deflecting with an x% chance depending on it's tier with an associated energy cost per reflection. Possibly it could be limited to certain kinds of weapons as well, for instance only energy weapons or only kinetics. (deflecting missiles would be OP awesome!) I imagine it would also have only a small chance of deflecting directly back at the shooter (20% or something) and otherwise would act like a missed shot with them as target. So bullets would be ricocheting all over the place banging into machines and NCs and generally causing chaos (not a good idea with allies!).
So yeah, you failed, this idea is just too awesome for this forum thread. ;D
OK, I guess I should think of a bad idea?
How about a portable fabricator? It takes 4 util slots and runs off matter in your inventory plus a f-ton of power and heat. You can wander the facility sucking up matter and giving birth to your very own swarmer army. If the going get's tough you can always overload it and vomit lightning for a few glorious turns before the whole thing fries itself. Pretty cool eh? :P
Acquiring the schematic for yourself so that you can build more cogminds. If they find a fabricator, they can hack it to build whatever they want until they get themselves locked out, including portable fabricators. The level will soon be overrun with cogminds wearing fabricators.
Hawaiian Shirt. A utility that marks you as a tourist.
Telling your allies to enter the scanner. Because who doesn't want hero schematics? If that fails, they may get immobilized though.
A rocket chaos mode in which everyone gets a rocket launcher. Even the recyclers, who turn yellow when you shoot them.
A flying enemy with kinetic guns who can switch to treads while shooting you. Because you shouldn't be the only one with propulsion armor.
Heh, that's true, although you probably didn't hear about this yet but I think Beta 8 is removing propulsion armor for airborne bots ;)
Quote from: Kyzrati on December 05, 2018, 05:40:39 PM
Heh, that's true, although you probably didn't hear about this yet but I think Beta 8 is removing propulsion armor for airborne bots ;)
I figured that, so I wanted to put the idea in while it still makes sense. Anyways, another idea:
If you lose your first 5 games in materials, you must enter a password to start your next game. The password is shown in any stream that makes it to the factory.
Hahaha where do you come up with this stuff?!?! xD
From the SCP foundation. At one time, they required you to complete a quiz before you started editing. One question on the quiz asked you what the password was and you had to enter their irc channel to find it.
The portable fabricators idea came from Reassembly and the rocket chaos mode came from Streets of Rogue.
You can now equip 2 Core Expanders before you exceed the slot limit.*
* You start with 1 slot fewer.
Why stop there? Cogmind begins with 1 slot and you can find 7 expanders scattered throughout the complex.
Correspondence Cogmind: a version of the game that fits on postcards and takes less than 40 moves to win or lose
Add a dig dug zone in the caves, where walls fall southward when you dig out all the dirt below them. They crush objects in their path and explode enemies, derelict, and you.
Von Neumann type swarmers: they multiply in the presence of earth / doors / matter / dropped items.
Make von Neumann swamers drop randomly selected objects because nethack shouldn't be the only game with pudding farming.
Hyp. Launchers you can fire through walls - they explode either at range or when they collide with a robot. Ideal for clearing out those outposts in caves.
Quote from: Joshua on January 16, 2019, 03:21:01 PM
Hyp. Launchers you can fire through walls - they explode either at range or when they collide with a robot. Ideal for clearing out those outposts in caves.
WARNING: Idea too good for this thread.I would strongly consider adding something along these lines as a unique item one day :P
Cogmind can attach parts that are still attached to other robots. The masses of both add together and you both still get to try to move. May the strongest propulsion win!
Add a new branch run by a derelict Wheellord who crushes bots by running them over with giant spiked wheels. There can be scanners at the entrance to make sure no bots with legs, treads, flight or hover units can get in and he could have a secret stash of prototype wheels powered by alien technology to equip his army of Wheelbots. Also a lab where they study hamsters to learn the secrets of living in the wheel world and to work on weaponizing wheel technology.
Click the Facebook button and exiles will let you pick up another part. If you return to the game and don't like the Facebook page, the exiles will send their thugs.
Such "great" ideas in here :D
(I must interject to add, in case someone actually goes looking for it, that I deleted Cogmind's FB page a while back despite it having lots of likes and followers, because that company is a cancer upon the Earth.)
Every once in a while I see people on discord complain about random operators on your spawn.
Solution: Make triple operator spawns guaranteed.
Brilliant! If they know to expect it every time, there'll be nothing to complain about!
Peaceful Mode: Explore the world without anyone shooting at you
Sounds like wizard mode to me, which we'll possibly have one day anyway ;)
Complex bots should not aggro you if you have a loadout matching the standard one exactly: a small laser, two aluminum legs, an ion engine and a heat sink. :)
(I know this joke was kind of done already...)
Heatsinks are known as the *real* makeshift armour. How about a device that makes this official?
Thermal attraction generator. Increases the coverage of heatsinks by 350%. 30% chance to ignore damage to heatsinks.
If you shoot a staircase with cannons, the whole complex may collapse and fall onto you. (Not much of an idea, was just a reminder about the start of April)
A map with behemoths, crushers, giant haulers with humpbacks, and 2x2 versions of everything else. Call it -2/Texas.
Cogmind instantly gets shot down when he enters the surface
Mean!
Also <3 -2/Texas.
Geiger counters that beep depending on how close you are to nuclear engines and how recently you've been hit with a gamma rifle.
Cloak of invisibility makes it so no one can see you and you can't see yourself either. Enemies never "spot" you unless you bump into them.
make a sniper derelict that has optical arrays and lots of targeting computers that has a sniper with a 99% chance to hit you.
he would call you "worthy" if you hit him and he would give you a sniper rifle, would say "fool" if you use melee and would start out to warn you by saying "I never miss"
the way to beat him is to go into tiny corridors and surprise him at a room like this:
maze of corridors------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sniper cogmind
maze of corridors-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Remove permadeath. Change it to something like dwarf fortress and the main character is neo and he has to create a mechanical empire to save them from the tyrannical human beings who hate technology
Increase realism of Factory simulation: machines break down randomly, RIF Cogmind leads Unaware strike for higher wages xD
Quote from: Joshua on June 28, 2019, 04:55:13 AM
Increase realism of Factory simulation: machines break down randomly, RIF Cogmind leads Unaware strike for higher wages xD
And neglected welding torches and recalibraters should be left inside of the machines. And recyclers should sometimes explode when recycling engines.
Quote from: bugsniper on June 28, 2019, 11:16:52 AM
And recyclers should sometimes explode when recycling engines.
There's already a way to make this happen, though I've yet to hear of anyone discovering it ;)
At high corruption, serfs should occasionally take the wrong robot. Including you.
Also, add combat serfs that bring nearby defenders to your location.
Quote from: bugsniper on July 02, 2019, 11:38:53 AM
Also, add combat serfs that bring nearby defenders to your location.
Robot feudalism?
what you said earlier:
Quote from: bugsniper on June 28, 2019, 11:16:52 AM
And recyclers should sometimes explode when recycling engines.
There's already a way to make this happen, though I've yet to hear of anyone discovering it ;)
[/quote]
Spoiler
is it when you give it a rigged engine
My most Horrible Idea. A weapon that shoots drones.
Quote from: Joshua on July 02, 2019, 03:16:38 PM
Quote from: bugsniper on July 02, 2019, 11:38:53 AM
Also, add combat serfs that bring nearby defenders to your location.
Robot feudalism?
Sure, why not. And load the 3x3 F with extra defenders.
Quote from: SHADOWELITE7 on July 22, 2019, 03:41:45 PM
My most Horrible Idea. A weapon that shoots drones.
Bee drones make enemies panic, afraid of being stung despite not having flesh. Bee workers that fly like swarmers and melee you with single-use piercing weapons. Put both in -6/Hive.
Stack phase shifters to 100% and Cogmind can walk through walls. Go over 100% and Cogmind powers up into Quantum Cogmind in a flavor like charm or strange, and quantum uncertainty begins to affect Cogmind's position until annihilated by collision with an anticogmind intercept dispatched by the LHC. If Cogmind avoids all intercepts then the Gray Lensman comes to take him out.
A cheat code that allows you to shapeshift into other robots
A brobot that forces you to drop all your weapons and chill, relax
A weapon that shoots black holes but also gives you free matter
Overkill damage: If there is excess damage left after destroying a robot, it is applied to the next nearest hostile robot or explosive machine. If there are none of either, it splashes back to Cogmind and allies.
A gun for which you type in how much damage you want it to deal. If there is leftover damage, it is tripled and dealt to you.
1. Permanent permadeath: The game deletes itself from the universe when a run ends...
2. ARCmind: play as an ARC! Your whole purpose in life is a controlled self-destruct when you run into an enemy.
There are utilities to increase thermal, EM, kinetic, melee damage, one to increase explosive damage is clearly missing xD
A magnet utility that increases your chances of getting hit. Because maybe you have a sticky part attached that you want destroyed or you're protecting someone behind you.
Remove all branches, now that Valguris has proved they're unnecessary for a ++ win ;)
Such an awesome win. Was happy he was able to do that :)
Purchaseable DLC skins allowing you to play as Cogmind's friends Gearhead, Hal, Eliza, Turbo, Heliz and Pindar-2, each with their own unique ability.
You can insert a sticky part (processor/hackware) into a Scanalyzer to scan, but you run the risk of being sucked into the machine where you have to play a realtime minigame dodging lasers to avoid being scanned yourself. As a bonus players who want more challenge can use this to intentionally activate "hard mode" from the first floor with a scanalyzer.
If a recycling unit is full, it should put out robot arms with shovels that dig chutes nearby and drop the extra parts inside. And then the recycling unit becomes the crusher.
Being able to pick up drones with the mouse and drag them onto other drones to merge them into bigger drones.
I was fondly remembering this thread when you were posting other "evil patch ideas" in the stream chat today :P
Let me see if I can remember some of the evil patch ideas too.
Spoiler
* EM damage can blow up your launchers and not just your engines
* Missed data logs result in real penalties or corruption on your next level
* Programmers can use special hacks against you, such as blocking you from picking up or walking or removing parts
* Programmers can turn P2 against you temporarily
* A combat researcher should guard shell armor, who brings trackers if it can't scan you
* In 33% of games, a hermit crab should inhabit the shell armor
And a new one: Supermagnetic Reflector structures at strategic locations in -1/Command that reflect whatever you fire at them. For example, if you shoot a
Spoiler
Sigix Terminator
at it, it's reflected back at you and you lose 1000 core.
Enemy moral system that involves them panic and breaking when they see you dispatch an assault team with no effort.
If you wait in Scrapyard long enough, they uncover stairs to Ancient Caves, which leads to a 2,000 floor labyrinth that tunnels through the planet's core and eventually out to the other side.
Noetic Entanglement Device: when core is destroyed with this equipped, wake in another place with all memories and mutations.
Spoiler
S7 is the place I had in mind. :)
Really does get you thinking :)
An evil difficulty level that adds a special danger to every level, such as regenerating traps, special programmer hacks mentioned above, garrisons that follow you, researchers in ordinary levels, and a positron field that slowly decays your parts,
Garrisons that are built in volcanoes that erupt 100-200 turns after you enter them so you have to escape quickly.
(Wow this... is actually sorta similar to a certain something coming in Beta 10 xD... Must mean it's a good idea? :P)
A BehEMoth armed with a giant EM cannon. It's right there in the name!
If you have both wings and legs, you should be able to stomp on enemies like Mario.
Combat Engineers: Instead of calling for a normal reinforcement squad they call for other nearby engineers to build a box around Cogmind so that they're just stuck in a 1x1 space.
Combat ARCs: They ram you before deploying, just to add insult to injury
Zombies Mode: All bots are hostile and will attack you with whatever they have: Even Serfs will try to ram into you, and Excavators are suddenly kind of terrifying
Combat Mechanic: A 2x2 Mechanic with a stasis projector who immobilises you, then just comes up and takes all your parts off, like you can make normal mechanics do with RIF
Combat Sentry: ...Wait that's just a Heavy, isn't it
Combat Heavy: ...Wait, that's just a Behemoth, isn't it
Combat Behemoth: ...Wait, that's just a normal Behemoth
Deploy-A-Sentry 2.0: an 8-slot Drone Bay that, when used, just deploys an entire Y-64 Sentinel next to you. It's not friendly.
Combat Minesweepers: they place collected traps around you in inconvenient locations
Combat Garrisons: Oh god they have legs now run
Your keyboard has an escape key and you should be able to press it to escape from stasis.
An item that keeps cogmind in the same general position (eg. -4 armory -> -4 armory), but randomly changes the seed to a different one. Want to imprint twice? Is visiting warlord only once too little? Need that third + at the end of your score sheet? It has so many strange edgecases that would have to be manually checked while being completely busted at the same time.