Ironically for a release dubbed "Unchained More," and one that includes an even wider variety of Unchained personalities and tech, folks are generally going to be seeing them "less" overall xD. This is due to the inevitable arrival of CY-PHR, who we'll get to further below...
First though, wow it's been years since we saw a minor version number! Beta 16.1 adds a fair bit of content, but is built primarily to expand upon and improve the beginnings of the new expansion started with Beta 16, which ideally would have been released with this stuff included, but I put it out early to avoid keeping you all waiting too long (plus of course the large number of new achievements alone would provide plenty of diversions!).
This release therefore focuses on rounding out the overall Unchained experience before we head into adding their HQ and also, yes, yet more of them ;)
Sci-fi Fans
While I won't be spoiling all the new Unchained, I will say that on meeting them you will likely notice that members of this batch are very clearly avid fans of science fiction (okay there is one oddball in there, but to begin with I did not mean for this group to almost all belong to this particular subcategory of Unchained :P).
Each comes with their own wild new tech which you can theoretically acquire, but at the very least must first face off against prior to said acquisition--new challenges!
But like I said earlier, they were already relatively uncommon (except for a handful of players consistently being very naughty over the long run, or going out of their way to "summon" them), and there will now be far fewer "unexpected" encounters.
One of the side effects of Beta 16 temporarily having a smaller pool of Unchained to work with, and only fledgling systems to drive their encounters, was that there was not as much leeway for matching dispatched types to appropriate situations. This lack of nuance meant that for example "doing a ton of hacking" (really, a lot), including even hacking that was less relevant/important in the bigger picture, could get an Unchained dispatched on you, and naturally they can in many cases be pretty deadly against such a build. Although normally you'd have the intel and means to flee, especially given the advance warning, being chased down in the first place would certainly be a surprise!
According to submitted run data this is actually where about 50% of Unchained encounters originated, not a desirable balance in the long run, but it took [a lot] more work to build the proper Unchained response to extreme hackers. So a huge chunk of "normal" Unchained dispatches we saw in the previous version have been replaced with something else. Such is releasing major content expansions in the middle of working on them :P. And that's about all I'll say on that.
CY-PHR is a sci-fan, too. You'll see.
Borg
Are you a fan of the Borg? Because 1B-0RG is a fan of the Borg. Either way, unfortunately you won't have a chance to bond over your fandom, because they want you dead.
So yes, this is one of the Unchained arriving with Beta 16.1, one you may have seen mentioned before if you've browsed Soloparser's Compendium in Scraptown.
Like the other Unchained, they have some cool powerful tech, tech that enables whole new builds/play styles, tech that you can theoretically steal for yourself if you meet and defeat them. Further into the future there will likely be other ways to acquire some types of Unchained tech (other than actually getting hunted by, and defeating, and successfully salvaging them...), but seeing as such a method does not yet exist, in the interest of spicing up this particular version, for a limited time only (to be removed in the next version), there is a way to acquire specifically 1B-0RG's primary tech, the Assimilator, for free. (If you recall, we did this with the Scrap Engine before the UFD Scraplab was added to the world.)
Just visit 4L-MR0's lab in the Subcaves on -10, and there you will find it just lying on the floor. So it is indeed found in more advanced player territory (but also coincidentally in a lore-appropriate location!), since it's not that easy to make use of at first, and is a relatively complex part with by far the longest description of any item in the game xD
See for yourself:
Technically in this version you can get 1B-0RG dispatched on you while you (mysteriously :P) also have his Assimilator, thereby offering a unique opportunity to enjoy some Borg-on-Borg action. Maybe there will be some bonding over a common interest after all!
A lot of the new parts added in this release are Borg-related (they're kind of like a whole new subfaction, just... more centrally controlled), and most of the rest are just generally Unchained-related tech.
Changelog
Lots of other little updates even for a minor version, just any new rare coincidences that have been recently discovered, or in particular fixes for features/content that was new to Beta 16 (in particular we got all those new achievements). I'll cover some of them in more detail further below.
Cogmind Beta 16.1 "Unchained More" (260209) changelog (excerpt):
- NEW: 4 more Unchained
- NEW: 33 new items
- NEW: 1 new robot
- NEW: 2 new achievements
- NEW: 24 pieces of art for all older special parts that cannot be salvaged
- NEW: Special parts that cannot be salvaged from robots display new INTEGRATED state, with context help
- NEW: Expanded Unchained dialogue system
- NEW: With FarCom access, Exiles automatically identify adjacent dangerous Research branch exits
- NEW: [Temporary] 1B-0RG's Assimilator always found in Subcaves lab
- NEW: Bonus points awarded for "Hunted by Unchained"
- NEW: Scoresheet records "Initial UFD Resources" for each map
- NEW: Option to represent energy drain in part list energy visualization with orange instead of blue (advanced.cfg: partEnergyGraphAltColor)
- NEW: Option to disable all mod-key based keyboard input for Parts window parts (advanced.cfg: blockPartsWindowModKeyInput)
- NEW: Contextual tutorial message warning about matter upkeep when attaching power sources with such a cost
- NEW: Contextual tutorial message to teach about ramming bots to gain a small amount of matter in some relevant situations
- NEW: Contextual tutorial message explaining purpose behind bump melee attack warning while flying
- MOD: Unchained announced more quickly in some scenarios
- MOD: Surviving Unchained that permanently gave up chase cannot return again for additional triggers
- MOD: Added initial stage of nuance to Unchained-triggering behavior detection (more to come)
- MOD: Full RIF runs trigger fewer Unchained than before
- MOD: Hostile NPCs speaking to Cogmind also become immediately aware and therefore not susceptible to sneak attacks regardless of speed
- MOD: Increased but variable leniency for accidental hits on allies
- MOD: N-01 Spotter no longer drops parts
- MOD: Gui. EMP Blaster now only found in prefabs, redesigned as disposable weapon
- MOD: Smartbomb Launcher now a prototype, removed delay
- MOD: Electrostorm Shotgun arc reduced from 120 to 90
- MOD: Martial strikes and deflection no longer apply to Datajacks
- MOD: Golem, Assembler considered Special class, not Derelict
- MOD: Data Miner does not redirect investigations for which Cogmind is not near target area, or exterminations/assaults not targeting Cogmind directly
- MOD: Using knockback effects to indirectly attack other friendly factions now considered hostile action
- MOD: Miss trajectory arcs are similar regardless of aiming at a close or distant spot on the same line of fire
- MOD: Unchained will no longer repeat the same dialogue in the same run
- MOD: "Betrayal Most Foul" achievement now only triggers for a visible ally
- MOD: [RPGLIKE mode] SUBCON Basin size reduced to 2
- MOD: [RPGLIKE mode] Cobbler Unit can no longer produce Humpback
- MOD: Windows XP (SP3) no longer official supported (theoretically could still work with right setup)
- FIX: Windows 7 compatibility temporarily lost due to DLL update [Esven]
For the complete changelog including all bug fixes, see the latest iteration packaged with the game or online here.
Saves from earlier versions are incompatible with Beta 16.1, but even if you're on Steam and Cogmind automatically updates, Beta 16 is still available via its own legacy branch and you can roll back to finish a run in progress first if you like. Cogmind will remind you which branch to use if it finds an old save, and your old save won't be deleted or affected by the update.
Art for the Art God
Among the new content we have a lot of additional item art, covering any parts that previously had none because they were not obtainable by Cogmind, just used by other robots. The original purpose behind the lack of art was that those parts could not be used, and therefore (years ago) it would be impossible to add them to your item art gallery. Eventually we got the ability to more easily add parts to your collection without even acquiring them by simply Parsing a target robot currently using them, which helped a lot with parts found on challenging or rare enemies, or those that are simply hard to salvage for whatever reason. But previously art-less items remained art-less. Only a tiny minority of items fell into this category, but it was kind of unfortunate to have any at all given that it's possible to add them to the gallery via other means.
Now all* parts have art!
Part of the catalyst for doing this now was that the Borg happen to use a fair number of new custom parts inaccessible to Cogmind, but I wanted to have them represented visually since item art has a way of unifying groups with a certain "personality" to their design. The other reason was that this release comes a little late (I was out of country and managing a release from there would be more problematic, so have been sitting on this for a little while), and therefore had some extra time available to work on other "low-priority" stuff :)
*note that "all" excludes parts used exclusively in special modes, to avoid requiring that those be played in order to complete the gallery collection, the one exception being Protomatter, which I still want to add to the base game in some form at a later time, as indicated in the manual
Some of that part art for "unobtainables" can be found in the following art selection from Beta 16.1--you might be able to guess a few ;)
Even more importantly in this update from a QoL perspective, the not-so-obvious "this robot's using a part with no art so maybe I can't salvage it?" is replaced by a much clearer "INTEGRATED" state indicator, which also includes context help text to explain as much.
In all, as of Beta 16.1 there is now a maximum of 1,334 item entries in the gallery.
The Saga of the Guided EMP Blaster
Also this release, Gui. EMP Blaster has reached its final form?!
This is an ancient item (Cogmind Alpha 1!) that has since gone through a few balance shifts needed as a result of changes elsewhere, but it turned out to be simply "unbalanceable" ever since terrain started rebuffing most EM damage, allowing the Blaster to more safely and repeatedly be used for ambush and hit-and-run tactics against whole groups of enemies with almost no chance of coming under direct fire, even over longer periods, because surrounding terrain remained fully intact. This is a stark departure from the normal benefits and drawbacks of most AOE weapons :)
Funny enough, despite its popularity at one point it took years for someone to finally put its latest iteration to the test, truly playing to its strengths, and sure enough even after the last minor buff it got to convince someone to at least try, that run happens to be the highest-scoring run so far in Beta 16, topping the leaderboards at 399,170! (Actually one of the highest-scoring runs in Cogmind ever.) So yeah, it's been proven that simply modifying range, damage, or other numbers isn't really going to cut it. It's either not good enough and no one would ever use it, or easily tips over into territory that makes it just waaaaay too powerful in the right hands.
But I don't like outright removing things from the world (extremely rare in Cogmind), preferring to instead update/adapt them, and if the pure numbers can't be made to work, it was time to do a more drastic redesign, so the Gui. EMP Blaster has been reborn as something which is still very powerful (actually way more powerful than before xD), but is limited in use. It's also no longer a regular piece of 0b10 tech that can be randomly found or fabricated, only appearing in certain prefab locations (the same ones as before). This change pulls it out of the random item pool, which could be seen as a bonus since almost everyone ignored its presence anyway :P
Darcyisverycute, of Gui. EMP leaderboard fame, even made a cool piece of art considering the part to be its own "faction" alignment :P. Now that's dedication.
Compatibility/Performance
Cogmind has gotten a ton of performance improvements in various areas over recent releases, but one of them in particular, the alternative SDL DLL, has unfortunately caused incompatibilities in some older/different hardware that can't seem to be reconciled across the board, so as of Beta 16.1 we're reverting to the original maximum-compatibility version. On some systems, in particular if using a 4K display, if you would like to try the drop-in DLL replacement (which does work fine for most people) to eek out some extra performance gains, it's still available on the forums here. This boosts FPS on some setups, though also note that Cogmind FPS is capped at 60 by default anyway, unless you manually uncap it. (Of course added performance also means less CPU strain to hit that 60 FPS, too :P)
Reverting to the original DLL also restores Cogmind's support for Windows 7, which I wasn't aware was broken until it was recently brought to my attention.
XP, however, has been dropped from the list of supported Windows versions. It should theoretically work fine, but I'm not sure why I haven't been able to get it running there again, it has clearly been broken for a long while, support would likely have to be dropped in the future anyway, and it's been years since any players I knew of were using it, so it's not really worth getting into the nuts and bolts on that one.
The End of the Beginning
So there we have it, a minor version that completes a more proper introduction of the Unchained before we move deeper into this expansion with ever-crazier tech and encounters.
The next release may be a bit surprising ;)
In case you missed it in the annual review, the Beta 15 stats were analyzed and results posted here.
There is no leaderboard reset for Beta 16.1--the runs are included in the same board as the previous version, though the runwise database list puts them on a separate page for convenience.
Many thanks for your support, and as I always say (because it's always true :P), still lots to come...