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Topics - Arseface

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1
General Discussion / Tiles Version Color
« on: June 03, 2015, 05:27:27 PM »
Why on earth does the tiles version not share approximate color usage with the ascii version?

I tried booting up the tiles since I've heard good things about it. I was immediately visually assaulted by really hard to parse item piles.

I'm really confused by this. I don't think there's anything you give up by making the item groups the proper colors. Especially since the blog shows extensive thought behind how to make good tiles.

2
Strategies / Armies for the Aspiring General
« on: May 30, 2015, 04:42:20 PM »
I seem to have sparked some interest in the army strategy. And I'm not going to lie, it can be boring at times. Building an army is a frustrating resetfest before you have 4 hacking suites and cleaning up after them(purging) can be an annoying endeavor as they kill the squads sent to kill you raising the alert level. It's not uncommon to hit alert 5 before the factory.

BUT, raising an army is cool and worth doing at least once so you can enjoy the fireworks. 10 weapon slots? Pfft. Try 10 H-66 Slayers each with 2 KE Penetrators.

Preparing for the Army

You'll need
2 Hacking Suites.
2 Hcp. Matter Storage Units.

Get yourself a hacking suite off an o or through unenhanced hacks.
Get Hcp. Matter Storage units the same way.

Hack Schematic(Imp. Hacking units)
Hack Schematic(H-66 Slayer)


Find a fabricator through hacking or exploration.

Establishing a Perimeter

Your soldiers WILL blow up your production facilities if you let them near them. Keeping them away and keeping you safe is a priority. Establishing perimeters around key points is essential to the function of a military.

Use the GUARD command to form squads. Assign 1-3 units as squad members to officer units. Command the officers to GOTO positions that block off access to the key structure.

As you produce, you'll need to make matter runs. Chances are your soldiers will be killing things and dropping matter like mad, use it to fuel your army.

Optional: If you can contain a terminal within your perimiter do so. This isn't mandatory, but it helps a boatload with the next step.

Maintaining Your Army

Aries make a lot of noise. I hit alert level 4 in pretty much every run by the second evolution. This is why you have your hacking suites.

Use Alert(Purge) until you get the message "No threats on record".

Mobilizing Your Army

Moving from point to point can be difficult. Important assets can be easily blown up on accident if you don't take the necessary steps.

Finding a Terminal is your first priority on every floor.

Use Index(Machines) if you have hacking suites. Index(Fabricators) and Index(Terminals) if not.
Use this to plot a path to the Fabricator to resupply. If you have hacking suites also use Access(Main) to plan an exit strategy.

DO NOT allow your units near Fabricators. Ideally you don't want them near Terminals either, but there are always spares.

Bait enemies surrounding key points to your army. Being able to fly is handy since it makes it easier to get behind your army when the fighting starts. Crossfire is scary as hell.

Once a point has been flushed go move on to Establishing a Perimeter and either build up or flush the alert.

Continue ad infinitum.

The only things that should change are what you build. Better flying units are nice if you want to carry a boatload as are defenses for safer baiting. Robots are the biggie though as everything else is up to taste.

The things you want to build at each fabber level are
Level 1
H-66 Slayer
Level 2
Unknown
Level 3
Unknown

Ideally you want units that don't have explosives with decent dodge chances or a boatload of health. Think of dodge modifiers as health multipliers.

I don't know what those are at the high end because I'd been mucking about on the easy floors gathering data. When I get far I start running away a lot more so I'm not sure what relative strengths are up there(yet). Any help would be appreciated.

3
Ideas / Log Timestamps and Long Wait
« on: May 30, 2015, 02:50:15 PM »
I'd like to know what turn things happened for reference. Showing the turn count in the log would be handy.

I'd also like a long wait command of some sort. 50 turns is perfect, 100 turns could work. Holding down . or flicking the wheel is so imprecise when you're trying to wait out a terminal reboot or hide till your terrain scanner gives you proper readings.

4
General Discussion / Mandatory Music Thread
« on: May 30, 2015, 01:53:10 PM »
Every forum needs one. Or three.

I haven't found an unofficial theme for Cogmind yet, so I'll just link my standard roguelike track. Originally I paired it with Spelunky, but pretty much any dungeon delvey roguelike. Brogue and Sil especially.



Any good tracks for Cogmind?

5
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

6
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.

7
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?

8
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.

9
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.

10
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?

11
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 who know 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.

12
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.

13
General Discussion / First Recorded Win Per Build Compilation
« on: May 24, 2015, 11:23:17 PM »
I figured it's best to start this early on.

Record a win and I'll update the post with the version number and your name. Since not everybody goes to the forums this'll be limited to our little community. Still, should be fun. If there are people who've won already I'll figure something out for you.

Post proof of winnings, probably a screenshot and I'll add your name to the list. A mod or something can edit these posts in case I die. I'll tidy this post up soon.

PS: No more than 3 dev stages please ;D

14
General Discussion / Looking for 7DRL Comparisons
« on: May 22, 2015, 05:41:40 PM »
I've had a squabble with my bank and I'll probably be unable to get the game for another few days. My finances are fine, there was just a mix-up with my card.

Anyhoo, I'm hoping some people who've played the 7DRL can give me a rundown on how differently it plays while I twiddle my thumbs. I've read the blogs and whatnot, but some first hand accounts would be fabulous. I've played the 7DRL so using that as a reference point would be great.

Any new features that are particularly fun? Anything that still feels the same? Anything worse?

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