And that's what happens when you combine the new overload_power hack with squads lured through some explosive machinery :D
Their power source won't go critical immediately, but it happens pretty quickly and as you can see there's a visible timer to help you plan your next few turns before the fireworks begin.
The explosive potential matches that of EM-caused chain reactions, thus it's greater for more powerful power sources. In the same way it also just destroys their power supply, which technically may not destroy the bot entirely, so it doesn't need to be a hugely expensive hack like outright destruction or assimilation. This makes it both a fun, useful and fairly frequently usable hack.
Aside from overload_power, this week's robot hacking progress can't compare with last week in terms of flashiness, but I did get close to the end of the list. So far 59 hacks have been implemented, with just a few more to go. After that there's still more related work to do in terms of lore, balancing datajacks, and more, but the entire robot hacking system will be completed next week. (No this doesn't mean Beta 7 will be ready next week xD)
Mind Probe
One of the bigger new hacks completed just yesterday is parse_system, the replacement for the old PARSE option.
Through Beta 6, parsing a robot is a regular old hack with a percent chance to succeed. Though easy to pull off, it's still not guaranteed.
The new parse_system for Beta 7 is not only guaranteed (as are all robot hacks), it's also practically free--no RIF, no couplers. (See the overview of the robot hacking system if you're not sure what that means.) Just like the manual hack 'z' entry, 'a' will always be parse_system for any bot you can jack, appearing as the first listed option. Here's a series of demonstrations parsing various common targets:
In the past it's also never been very useful--I added it mainly for fun. But now it also serves some purposes!
First of all you can see there that parse_system gives more info than it used to, including details about the AI and whatnot.
The most tangible advantage, however, is the fact that it both lists all parts attached to the bot, identifies them all even if unknown or prototypes, and even adds them to your gallery if not already there! This will be a new non-evil method to get records for some of those cool parts your friends and/or NPCs are using without, you know, murdering them :P
By extension, as part of this update, jacking a friendly will no longer be considered a hostile action.
Faster than Light
A couple weeks ago for SITREP #31 I mentioned the birth of a speedrunning community among Cogmind's players, with semi-regular contests. Those have continued, and are getting bigger and better...
This weekend we'll have simulcast races on Twitch with commentary by b_sen, along with anyone else who wants to hang out in stream, or participate in the races themselves! Full info in the announcement here (also on r/Cogmind).
Sadly I won't be there because over here in Asia it'll be 2 AM or so, although I sometimes participate in races at other times. But there'll be experienced Cogminds around if you want to learn the art of speedrunning, or perhaps about other mechanics you can put to use in your regular runs!
The simulcast even includes its own layout and everything :D (the following image is a WIP mockup, layout work by b_sen)
The latest scoreboard:
Armchair Robotics
The community has started weekly topical strategy discussion threads!
Ever since a couple years ago the core community moved from the forums to Discord, we've been having a ton of insightful strategy discussion there, but it gets interspersed with and buried under lots of other conversation, so it's not easily accessible to the majority of players. This new format will be a lot more accessible, have long-term reference value, and also provide ongoing content for the still-under-construction Cogmind Community Guide.
The first topic was just announced today: "Propulsion Type." See the full prompt and discussion in the following locations:
Visit your community of choice to contribute!
Celebrating Roguelikes
The annual Roguelike Celebration is coming up! If you can make it to San Francisco in early October, get your tickets now for a discount (the price is just to cover the costs of running the event).
This is the third one. I missed the second due to that annoying concussion-that-still-won't-go-away, but was at the first the year before. It was so much fun, I wrote about it here. Got to meet a bunch of great people I only knew (or knew of) online, and then it was only a one-day event--this time we get two!
I even gave a talk about how I became a developer and how Cogmind came to be:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yJflbg0V38
Oh yeah, I guess I've only implied it so far, but yeah I'm going again :D. (You might notice me on the speakers list there, I'm going to be doing a non-Cogmind-centric talk this time around.)
The next SITREP will likely be in two weeks instead of one. Development will continue as normal, but I'll mostly likely be working on a lot of non-showy internal stuff in the short term so there won't be as much to talk about.
A note about SITREPs: These are regular progress updates where I share features coming to the next release, but aren't actually in game yet. Public releases get their own dedicated news announcement and changelogs/release notes, for example Beta 6 here.
There may be other relevant discussion of this SITREP on the GSG forums or r/Cogmind.