Say hello to kinetic knockback!
As you can see, like knockbacks from impact weapons this can smash them right into machines, though this way you're less likely to be in the blast radius :P
This was originally envisioned as a cannons-only mechanic, but for now I have it applied to all kinetic projectiles and it'll probably stay that way through at least the prerelease testing phase to play with the interesting tactical effects of allowing even enemies with just guns to push you around. (To testers: Good luck defending bottlenecks against Swarmers!) It'll almost certainly be scaled back to its original scope for the official Beta 7 release, though.
A cannons-only approach will mean it mainly applies to Cogmind rather than everyone, unless of course you're hunting certain Behemoths ;)
Stay away from me, melee bots!
Knockback won't be of help against Brawlers, seeing as treads are immune to knockback, but Flak Cannons could be pretty useful for keeping non-treaded bots at bay since the effect is applied on a per-projectile basis.
As part of this update, knockbacks from both kinetic and impact damage will be capable of causing robots to hit another robot behind them, damaging and displacing the second robot.
Manual Upgrade
Manual hacking of robots is already a thing, but it's a pretty simple system that's always been used purely as a way to enter random codes you might collect as a result of certain encounters. There's not much of a need to type out any commands to begin with, considering there's a complete context menu that appears to recall all the codes, as seen here using the old hack list:
But with the number of hacks increasing significantly in Beta 7, some keyboard players might be more likely to prefer entering hacks by typing them out rather than finding them in the menu. Of course no one's going to bother if you have to type out an entire command, so like manual machine hacking we'll need to facilitate the process! For this I added both autocompletion and a command buffer. Demo (the parse_system effect at the end is just a placeholder for things to come):
It kinda sucked to have to switch the whole manual robot hacking system over from its original simple architecture (which already worked nicely) to one that could support these new features, and many hacks were involved, but hey everything once again works as expected so I won't complain! Blooper:
In adding that command buffer, technically the third, I passed by the debug buffer which showed all the commands I'd recently used while testing out the robot hacking features (specifically making sure all the proper hacks appeared while hacking different types of robots). It was kinda interesting to skim that :)
While at it I also added an advanced option to alter the default cost-wise method of sorting Coupler-based hacks:
With all this peripheral work done, next week it's finally time to, oh I dunno, actually implement some hacks xD
Be The Hacker (Part 3)
Part 1 gave an intro to the robot hacking system, Part 2 covered more of its principles and basic functionality, so now we're here with the third part to take a closer look at one of the essential requirements for a serious bot-hacker: Relay Couplers.
Most hacks require a target-appropriate Coupler to pull off, and as you've seen in previous screenshots all these hacks appear in their own box with a "Coupler" header.
The numbers off to the right aren't the percentages you might expect given the other/previous systems, but are instead static costs for executing each hack. That cost is directly deducted from the Relay Coupler value seen at the top and the hack takes effect, period. So Couplers are expendable, and each has its own "remaining value" before it is depleted. You can carry or attach as many Couplers as you want, and if you have more than one applicable Coupler for the current target robot their values are combined into a new total.
As you can see, the new system is easier to balance by forcing a trade of valuable slot/inventory space for guaranteed hacking effects, whether you want them to play a non-combat role, a supporting role, or a fully confrontational "I own you all" role.
As mentioned before, hack costs are static--there is currently no way to influence the cost via utility or other means, and allowing for the modification of costs would make it easy for robot hacking to creep into OP territory again. Better to have only one variable at play, the Coupler value, which can in some cases be higher than normal so that there's room to get more out of a single Coupler!
I've generally avoided consumables in Cogmind's design, at least in the traditional sense, but Couplers don't really fit that sense anyway since they have multiple uses and are also quite flexible in what they can be used to accomplish.
Coupler value is a factor of two elements: its source, and the type of robot it applies to. An individual [Behemoth] Coupler won't let you do much, though you could combine more than one to do just about anything! A lone [Grunt] Coupler, on the other hand, will last for a lot more hacks, depending on what you want do accomplish. There are five ways to acquire Relay Couplers, two of which I'll leave for your to discover, but here are some of the main ones:
Straight to the source! Like previous and current versions of Cogmind in which Garrison Relays play a role in robot hacking (albeit through a different mechanism), so do they under the new system. Venture into a Garrison itself and blow up relays to collect the most valuable Couplers inside.
Destroying Garrison Access locations will net you some Couplers as well. They're partially used and thus not as valuable, but at least they're fairly easy to acquire!
If lucky you can also find special caches in a Garrison containing lots of high-value Couplers, but don't count on it :P
That wraps up the series on the new robot hacking system for now. I'll do a compilation on the blog at some point, and will of course continue sharing progress reports as the hacks themselves are fleshed out, among other features to come :D
Achievements Forever
If you're interested in how achievements are decided and implemented, and didn't see the series on my blog earlier, you can check out "Designing and Building a Robust, Comprehensive Achievement System" on Gamasutra. I put it there this week and it was pretty well received, even being featured on the front page for a time :D
256 is enough for now, but I'm sure we'll be seeing more later ;)
There may be other relevant discussion of this SITREP on the GSG forums.