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Grid Sage Games => Announcements => Topic started by: Kyzrati on May 07, 2018, 06:57:41 PM

Title: Cogmind Beta 6 "Achievements Unlocked"
Post by: Kyzrati on May 07, 2018, 06:57:41 PM
Time to start achieving! While Beta 6 brings with it a ton of other improvements and tweaks, the big new thing is a large collection of achievements to earn, 256 of them spanning six categories. All players have equal access to the achievements system, regardless of whether or not on Steam. More info below!

(https://i.imgur.com/CrUIqIM.png)

Cogmind Beta 6 "Achievements Unlocked" (0.10.180508) changelog:

Achievements

256 of them! I didn't have any specific target number in mind when creating this initial set of achievements--it just turned out that way based on the many different things there are to currently do in Cogmind.

When you earn an achievement there's now a pop-up in the bottom-right corner of the map.

(https://i.imgur.com/oADIkhm.gif)

And any earned at the end of a run will be displayed next to the stats window.

(https://i.imgur.com/0cKyY6H.gif)

Your score sheets now also include a list of the new achievements earned that run.

(https://i.imgur.com/JnKOhVh.png)

Available achievements, and those earned throughout all runs, can be browsed, filtered and sorted via the new interface accessible from the game menu. As you can see in the demo below, this interface is much more functional than Steam's, offering the ability to toggle different categories, filter by unlocked state, and order in four different ways.

(https://i.imgur.com/igD3dpj.gif) (https://i.imgur.com/igD3dpj.gif)

For an online list of achievements you can check Steam's global achievement list (https://steamcommunity.com/stats/722730/achievements), or for a better organized list see the latest SITREP (http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1120.0).

If you'd like to avoid spoilers, don't use third-party achievement managers that reveal hidden achievements! They will spoil achievements which have been hidden because they involve plot points. There is no need to expose and aim for any hidden achievement, as they are things you'll uncover naturally through regular play.

All achievement descriptions refer to requirements that must be completed within a single run, except where otherwise noted or obvious. For those of you who've been playing for a while already, know that only a small handful of achievements are retroactive, those which will check your lore and gallery collection progress at the end of a run, whereas pretty much everything else will only be earned the first time you do it as of Beta 6.

So how to earn all these achievements... well, many of them will come naturally via simply using different play styles, hitting all the plot points, and going for all the endings. However, some will require actually aiming for the achievement (i.e. not something you'll probably "accidentally accomplish" through normal play). All achievements are known to be completable by players who've done these things in the past--they were created based on player stats collected over the years, all of them on regular difficulty. Some of them are extremely challenging though! If you have trouble with some of the achievements, note that all of them are equally accessible regardless of difficulty setting, so just pop into the options and try some runs that way :D

As with the item gallery and lore collection, you can export your achievements via buttons at the bottom-right of the interface. convenient for those of you who'd like to review you achievements outside the game or maybe process them via other means. Three formats are supported (TXT, HTML, CSV), and whatever filters and sorting you have active at the time are reflected in the exported data! (For sample images of each of the exports, see SITREP #20 (http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1103.0).)

Like other Cogmind meta data, achievements support Steam's cloud saves, and there's even bidirectional syncing so that even without cloud saves active, if you reinstall Cogmind elsewhere it'll still download all previous achievements from the Steam database. Playing the DRM-free version then later migrating over to Steam will also upload all previously earned achievements that are not yet earned on Steam, as long as you copy over your /user/ data as with a normal version migration.
   
If for some reason you want to remove all your achievements, for example having earned many on lower difficulties and want to try again from scratch on a higher setting, add "resetAchievements=1" to advanced.cfg. This change cannot be reversed so you'd better be sure! The resetAchievements option is only valid for non-Steam players due to automated syncing while connected to Steam.

Finally, if you're interested in the development side of things--why some achievements are hidden, the methods and purpose behind achievement selection, how they're categorized, how the icons were created, and much more, check out the latest article on my blog (http://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2018/05/achievements/).

(https://i.imgur.com/uODJZ4o.png)

Under the Hood

Cogmind's initial startup speed has gotten slow over the years with all that data, so I've managed to cut the time down to two-thirds of what it was by multithreading the most demanding bits, namely particles and sound effects. Here's a simple diagram comparing Beta 5 and Beta 6 on that front:

(https://i.imgur.com/V2oKSHD.png)

I've also expanded the autosave system to also save an adjustable number of sequential backups at a designated interval, so if (for example) a power outage at exactly the wrong time manages to corrupt your save, there'll be a backup from not long before that :)

(https://i.imgur.com/iYHECIH.gif)

Prior to Beta 6 Cogmind already included a couple of autosave mechanisms, the first which automatically saves your current run's progress at an adjustable interval, and another which makes a backup copy of the current save and all settings once per day. But in the aforementioned power outage scenario you'd only be able to restore progress to wherever it was the previous day (assuming the current run was long enough!).

It requires renaming the file you want to use as your current save, but you probably won't ever need this feature anyway, and old files will be deleted automatically--it's all handled silently in the background. You can also turn off the feature entirely by setting the interval to 0 (advanced.cfg "autosaveInterval"). Those of you who've been playing prior to Beta 6 may want to consider lowering the interval, since the old default value under the previous sytem was 5 (minutes), but I think with the new system it makes more sense for it to be around 3 or less. (Anyone just joining us will have the new default, but those with an old config value will not have their old value overwritten, so this is something you'd have to do manually if you like the idea of having autosaves closer to your current one.)

QoL

While you have any hostiles/allies/parts labels manually activated, more will continue appearing automatically as you pan the map! No more repeatedly hitting '3' to look for that elusive item :P

(https://i.imgur.com/u6LK2OZ.gif)

These additional labels also obey the item filters added in Beta 5 (http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1015.0).

By request, RTS-style panning is now a thing--moving your cursor to the edge of the screen can pan the map once you activate this feature in the options. It's off by default, and in turning it on you can also select the panning speed. This type of panning is of course only available in true fullscreen mode.

(https://i.imgur.com/OvxVfGo.gif)

Part Autosorting now defaults to on, but its original default was off, so if you've been playing before Beta 6 and have not activated it manually, I'd suggest turning it on to take advantage of automated organization for your parts list. (As a reminder, if you want your parts to autosort but allow you to retain manually assigned weapon order--since that determines firing order--you can deactivate weapon autosorting behavior in advanced.cfg: partSortIgnoresWeapons.)

This feature is not only useful for increasing the effectiveness of part management, it also comes with a cool animation :D

(https://i.imgur.com/mYjFsQF.gif)

The game menu has been rearranged to combined the gallery, lore, and achievements under a single "Records" menu at the far right. (It's likely we'll be getting some other options on that page later.)

(https://i.imgur.com/okGbVxb.gif)

Mechanics

There weren't a large number of mechanics tweaks or additions this time around, just some changes focused on niche cases...

Melee buff! Melee Analysis Suites now increase minimum weapon damage. This will help improve melee-focused builds, especially those which are multiwielding and/or using impact weapons. You can see the effect reflected in the info ('q') mode values.

(https://i.imgur.com/UwK6Rte.gif)

All varieties of Drone Bays can now be activated more conveniently without even attaching them--see the new description.

(https://i.imgur.com/Yea1eE4.png)

This is great for those situations where you're already decked out, inventory full, and don't really want to drag along a newly discovered bay but would like a little drone buddy or three to scout ahead. Drone Bays are still often good to carry around as makeshift armor, or to recall drones for repair and storage.

We have a few more changes to moving while overweight...

The most noticeable will be for flight and hover, which have had their overweight penalties increased, making it less effective to build an intentionally overweight flight-combat build to take advantage of superior firepower while still being significantly faster than wheels and legs. Flight-combat is certainly still very viable, it'll just require more skill to pull off. Basically if you're going overweight on flight or hover you'll want to readjust your loadout, and if it's happening mid-combat due to propulsion loss you'll likely want to make those adjustments immediately (it'll help to carry backups or have more support than needed at any given point).

Flight also loses its ability to fly over hostile robots if overweight, so the point is: You really don't want to be overweight on otherwise fast propulsion :P

Aaaand reason #3: Traps have a 100% trigger chance if you're overweight! This doesn't mean much for bots on treads and legs, which always or almost always trigger traps anyway, and move slow enough that they can often spot them a ways off, but it's a big jump for relatively trap-safe flight/hover. Technically if you really hate traps you might already be using a Structural Scanner or one of the other trap detection methods to solve that problem, but again you probably want to avoid being overweight in the first place.

Visual Options

By request we have additional alternative ASCII map fonts at smaller sizes.

Terminus 12:

(https://i.imgur.com/mXBmWqF.png)

Terminus 14:

(https://i.imgur.com/gt9YNGX.png)

And my personal nostalgia-inducing favorite, IBM VGA 14:

(https://i.imgur.com/CbdR54s.png)

That's one I would love to add at all sizes, but it really only works at the traditional size it was designed for. (Unlike, say, a modern fixed width font like Terminus which is pretty awesome at all sizes.)

There's also some love for those of you using a LOW_CONTRAST render filter (first added in Beta 5 (http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1015.0)), courtesy of POLYBOT-7 (http://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2018/03/polybot-7-2018-7drl/) development. A number of people have been activating low-contrast mode, though this was a hackish feature in the first place because lots of Cogmind code and scripts assumed the background is black, so it looked funky in quite a few places. For the P7 aesthetic I went in and changed that assumption in a number of places where it was more accessible. Examples below:

Path visualization is now much more visible. (All sample images are using the SLEEPY preset.)

(https://i.imgur.com/9gDzko4.png)

FOV edges are somewhat easier to see.

(https://i.imgur.com/WVQGDcb.png)

(The following are all before-and-after gifs demonstrating adjustments.)

Activating an Optical Array.

(https://i.imgur.com/oDIGTX6.gif)

Motion trail fading.

(https://i.imgur.com/DYfpUA1.gif)

AOE visualization edges.

(https://i.imgur.com/zbT0WmY.gif)

Structural Scanner and cave-in visualization.

(https://i.imgur.com/P2pkWYJ.gif)

SFX visualization.

(https://i.imgur.com/yUQXaAF.gif)

Fixes and Little Stuff

Robot labels for those not in view were somehow completely broken by other changes a couple versions ago--those are now labeled again.

(https://i.imgur.com/yVVMacJ.gif)

Impact weapons display damage values properly modified by current momentum. Other melee weapons were doing it right, but a typo left out the impact category...

(https://i.imgur.com/SOCd96n.gif)

AOE traps give their salvage modifier in their description.

(https://i.imgur.com/UOrCGUE.png)

Items with description info (e.g. traps) will still show it even when the Show Supporter Items option is on.

(https://i.imgur.com/rHpoSQV.png)

Removing an active Particle Charger, or having it destroyed, immediately updates damage for the weapon(s) it was affecting.

(https://i.imgur.com/9PzbhL0.gif)

Forced spread weapons now list "Arc" as an explicit stat (with its own context help), as well as a clearer multi-explosive indicator.

(https://i.imgur.com/UM7SLA4.png)

I added a Disruption stat to melee weapon info, for the couple of late-game impact weapons that use it.

(https://i.imgur.com/7S87XUo.png)

By request, the message log now reports what items were crushed by a cave-in. Nooooooo!!!

(https://i.imgur.com/bmvr62Y.png)

Thanks and News

Special thanks to all our Beta 6 prerelease testers, who helped clean out a few bugs that slipped through the cracks, especially bugsniper for reporting a nasty crash on seeking lots of help from Zion, and Valguris for finding several different issues.

And thanks to everyone for your Steam reviews! In case anyone missed it, there's a pre-1.0 medium-term goal you can help with which could affect the future of Cogmind development. Check out the original announcement for more info (http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=1097.0).

There is currently a 10% discount on Cogmind to coincide with the Beta 6 release. As a heads up, this is the largest discount Cogmind will have during Early Access unless at some point Valve decides to again offer exposure for a larger discount like they did in December, in which case I might take them up. (But I wouldn't count on them doing that again, there being so many games out there these days :P)

Beta 6 saves are not compatible with previous versions, but even if you're on Steam and have autoupdates enabled, Beta 5 is still available via its own branch and you can roll back to finish a run in progress first if you like.
Title: Re: Cogmind Beta 6 "Achievements Unlocked"
Post by: Joshua on May 13, 2018, 05:48:12 AM
Now that I've spent some time playing with the interface in game, I will point out that the Steam web site spoils the achievement icons even though the descriptions are hidden. This probably doesn't help anyone who isn't already quite familiar with the game in ASCII mode, though. :)
Title: Re: Cogmind Beta 6 "Achievements Unlocked"
Post by: Kyzrati on May 13, 2018, 06:15:56 AM
Yep, it shows only the icons and only on the global list, though (to my knowledge), not for the other areas where players interact with personal achievements. For those it shows the hidden/unknown version. But either way, yeah only a minority of players use ASCII anyway :). And the detailed description is much more useful for figuring out exactly what an achievement refers to, so that's fine.