Beta 14 "United Federation of Derelicts"

THE UFD HAS ARRIVED. A whole new faction introducing new robot classes, mechanics, and a huge collection of lore and dialogue across many dozens of new encounters. This expansion includes 83 new items for you to find, salvage, steal, fabricate, or piece together, most featuring new mechanics and thereby further enhancing your existing build ideas or enabling a range of fresh alternatives.

Beta 14 comes a little later than planned, essentially since this release is bigger than planned, having added about 7 weeks of work on extra features beyond what I'd set out to do as described in Cogmind Vision 2025, where you can still read about yet more coming releases.

The biggest chunk of that extra time can be attributed to yet another architectural overhaul, but this time it wasn't the interface like we got with map zooming and multiple UI layout options in Beta 13. No, this time it was data architecture, and I'm pretty sure you'll notice the results when you start up the game and you're in almost immediately, with any potentially slow-loading maps on some machines also being that much faster to enter. RAM use has also been cut down significantly. Not that these were serious issues before, but saving on resources and time is always welcome :D

Funny enough, despite the massive content expansion, Cogmind's disk size has actually decreased in Beta 14 due to the optimized data formats. Just so much content is being added that even if it was within acceptable loading speeds in prior versions, I can imagine that with Beta 14 and going forward it was going to get increasingly annoying (also for me during development xD), so it was finally about time to address that part of the architecture.

Let's take a look at this release!

Changelog

The raw changelog isn't quite as long as some of the other major releases on an item-by-item basis, but this is actually the largest single update in many years as far as content goes, and as usual the many new gameplay elements are not explicitly listed below, instead relegated to being numbers and waiting for you to discover them ;)

Cogmind Beta 14 "United Federation of Derelicts" (240806) changelog (excerpt):

-----( HIGHLIGHTS )-----

• NEW: Branch map "Scraptown"
• NEW: 83 new items (most employing new mechanics)
• NEW: 50+ new encounters
• NEW: 11 new Derelict robot classes, many with new AI
• NEW: 16 new robot variants
• NEW: 8 new robot tiles
• NEW: Hundreds more lore entries covering new factions, technology, and history
• NEW: Optimized preprocessed data loading allows Cogmind.exe to start almost instantly, plus faster map generation on entry
• NEW: Deferred audio loading system, allowing faster startup and significantly cutting RAM use (deactivate via advanced.cfg: config.deferredAudioLoading)

-----( CONTENT )-----

• NEW: 4 new unique NPCs
• NEW: 4 new unauthorized hacks
• NEW: 11 more unique manual robot hacks
• NEW: 62 new sound effects (total = 1258)
• NEW: Rebuilt and expanded Recycling
• NEW: Scrap Engine relocated to its proper new home (rather than freely given at entrance to Recycling), and comes with in-theme instruction manual
• MOD: The large-scale -2/Research event has more repercussions, including extra spillover and additional patrols on some later maps

-----( QOL / UI )-----

• NEW: If no auto-replace target found for attaching ground item ('a'/LMB), repeat command to open manual swap-from-ground menu
• NEW: Left-click on parts list autopair markers to swap back (equivalent to '/'+a~z+y or Ctrl-RMB)
• NEW: LMB on self while standing on item with full inventory capable of autoreplacing worse items, matching 'g' key behavior
• NEW: Gameover screen requires delayed confirmation to Reset or Quit if have a loadable save state in Adventurer/Explorer mode
• NEW: Tile/ASCII for robots currently affected by ignore_targets darkened, as if disarmed
• NEW: Separate state indicator and context help in info window for "fragile" destroy-on-removal parts, overrides ACTIVE/INACTIVE
• NEW: If no RIF or 0b10 Alert Chip, HUD Location also reports high/max security and sterilization status in those cases
• MOD: Zionite Depthwide Sectors intel targets use dynamic naming scheme based on actual depth

-----( MECHANICS / ITEMS )-----

• NEW: Attacker accuracy reduced by [system corruption]/X% (X = 4 for Cogmind, 8 for others)
• NEW: Cryofiber also doubles cooling effect of all active Heat Sinks
• NEW: Hacking Drone capable of accessing Cave Seal Controls
• NEW: Combat AI groups may sometimes be more aggressive around bottlenecks higher in the Complex
• MOD: Dismantling machines via Plasma Cutter increases alert as normal
• MOD: Army Drones no longer capable of being armed with a launcher
• MOD: Hpw/Lrn. Tractor Beams rating increased
• MOD: System Restoration Modules and Purifiers now destroyed on removal (fragile)
• MOD: Reaction Control Systems apply full benefits to legs
• MOD: Increased fabrication counts for some NC bots
• MOD: Increased fabrication count of some non-prototype parts
• MOD: Heavy Door and Blast Door melee resistances increased from 34% to 50%
• MOD: Reinforced Barrier resistances increased to match Heavy Doors
• MOD: LC Capacitor area more accessible

-----( MULTITILE ROBOTS )-----

• NEW: Multitile robots can push single-tile robots out of the way
• NEW: Multitile robots capable of crushing other robots under some circumstances
• NEW: Multitile followers try to keep their distance to better stay out of the way
• NEW: Multitile controllable allies with a STAY command attempt to move away if approached
• NEW: Some larger robots capable of smashing through obstacles
• NEW: On entering new map with multitile followers, walls and doors near entrance are smashed

-----( HELP )-----

• NEW: Added examples to effect descriptions for all utilities based on value ratios
• NEW: Machine hacking tutorial context messages also show in shell console so immediately visible even in modal UI layouts
• MOD: Updated context help for item Stability/Burnout/Siege stats to explicitly indicate how to apply relevant special modes when applicable

-----( SCORESHEET / DATA )-----

• NEW: Many new scoresheet history log entries
• NEW: Scoresheet records peak and average build rating in each map, and rating on entrance
• NEW: Bonus points for besting VL-GR5 in competition

-----( BUGS )-----

• FIX: Lightning Scan Cloak level increased from 4 to 5, to match analysis [R-26 Lightspeed]
• FIX: Crash during special assimilation win ending animation when using new modal layout with inventory closed [necris81, mrjoebobfred, CaptainWinky]

Extended Beta 14 changelog including additional categorized minor details for advanced players...

>>>: CONTENT

• NEW: Additional behaviors from major NPCs during W/R attack event
• NEW: 3 new build type descriptors
• MOD: Pre-existing patrols on new maps start with more realistic spread
• MOD: Imprinter no longer remains in Zion forever if area comes under attack
• MOD: Clippyterm no longer sometimes appears empty
• MOD: Block/half block glyphs in size 14 ASCII map font now touch cell edges
• MOD: Increased minimum resolution from 600px to 720px in system requirements

>>>: QOL / UI

• NEW: Attaching a part in a temporary slot requires confirmation
• NEW: Adjust the distance of each use of keyboard-based map view shifting (advanced.cfg: mapViewShiftJumpDistance, new default is 15 instead of 10)
• NEW: Holding Ctrl-Alt in keyboard examine/targeting mode highlights path to cursor
• NEW: "Swapping" a part into an empty temporary slot via the part-based swap menu now possible
• NEW: Drag-drop attachment of parts into a temporary slot allowed if target slot is empty
• NEW: Special ALERT announcement if only one usable Garrison Access point remaining in Access
• NEW: System Corruption immunity status reflected directly in HUD
• NEW: RIF ability count included within HUD button itself
• NEW: Keyboard mode also shows RIF status as HUD text
• NEW: Option to always hide part category headers in modal UI layouts, regardless of current slot count (advanced.cfg: alwaysCondenseSlotTypeHeaders)
• NEW: Option to require confirmation when manually dropping inventory item onto another item (advanced.cfg: warnOnInventoryItemDropOnItem)
• NEW: Option to shift hue when visualizing longer paths to reflect the distance (advanced.cfg: dynamicPathDistanceHue)
• NEW: Option to display percent integrity remaining instead of raw values alongside map item labels (advanced.cfg: itemLabelIntegrityPercent)
• MOD: Attaching parts prioritizes use of permanent slots over temporary slots if both are present, regardless of listed order
• MOD: Exiting examine/targeting modes no longer automatically recenters on Cogmind (restore functionality via advanced.cfg: exitTargetingCentersCogmind)
• MOD: Explicitly entering keyboard examine mode rather than targeting mode while view following allied drone no longer recenters on Cogmind
• MOD: Removed itemLabelAddUnidentifiedSize advanced option, behavior now automatic in Tactical HUD mode
• MOD: Removed useless swap all autopairs command (Shift-Alt-w)
• MOD: EX-Prototypes Database terminal moved
• MOD: Chain reaction explosion data in power source descriptions toggled in real time alongside Tactical HUD, rather than requiring a restart
• MOD: Temporary Scrap Engine content list shifted below on-map messages in modal UI layout
• MOD: Temporary Scrap Engine content list hidden while any extended on-map combat logs visible
• MOD: Manual robot hacking input console and any known manual codes always both appear to right of robot hack list

>>>: MECHANICS / ITEMS

• NEW: Transmission Jammer effect description explicitly indicates ability to indirectly jam via drones, Watcher Feeds, etc
• NEW: Active Sensor Suite effect description explicitly indicates immunity to all scrambling and cloaking effects
• NEW: Core Physics Calibrator more explicitly lists late-game effect restriction
• NEW: Engineers have additional task type
• NEW: Melee attacks made with any momentum benefiting from speed bonus while using overloaded propulsion can cause burnout as moving normally
• MOD: Active Sensor Suite tile switched from Processor to Device
• MOD: Engineers no longer "form the Earth" and wait for Tunnelers to clear areas targeted for excavation if already cleared via destructive means
• MOD: Engineers might wait longer to effect some types of repairs
• MOD: Manually triggering friendly AOE traps applies alert and aggro as a normal attack
• MOD: Several special outlier effects that apply corruption now pass through normal defenses against it, for consistency

>>>: MULTITILE ROBOTS

• MOD: Multitile robots can better avoid known hostile traps in certain situations
• MOD: AI spotting of/by multitile robots more accurate

>>>: HELP

• NEW: Tutorial message regarding manual ground swap feature when slots full and no auto-replace options
• NEW: Tutorial message regarding meaning and use of markers that appear next to autopaired attached parts in Tactical HUD mode
• NEW: Tutorial message on first using the keyboard mode hotkey (F2) which hides the mouse cursor, primarily meant as a warning
• NEW: "Cooling Resolution" section in manual detailing turnwise heat processes for min-maxers, given the increasing number of cooling options
• NEW: Manual notes about Launchers indicate some portions of AOE damage may be capable of passing through walls under the right conditions

>>>: SCORESHEET / DATA

• MOD: "Inspector Gadget" achievement description updated to explicitly indicate disqualification due to gaining non-utility slots via other means
• MOD: "Straight Shot" achievement description updated to explicitly indicate Garrisons/Waste/DSF okay
• MOD: "Specialist"-type achievement descriptions explicitly state that damage calculations are across an entire run

>>>: MISC

• NEW: All patron supporter names registered since Beta 13 added to in-game list (see Credits menu)
• NEW: All patron item-attribution names registered since Beta 13 added to the item collection gallery
• NEW: All Alpha supporter names registered since Beta 13 added to in-game list (see Credits menu)

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 14, but even if you're on Steam and Cogmind automatically updates, Beta 13 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.

Scraptown/UFD

I won't be going into any details to avoid spoiling the experience, though I will provide a little background and direction here to help get you started.

There is a lot to discover in Beta 14, much of it tied to the new faction, and you can reach their primary location via Recycling, which is itself accessible via two different routes, either Storage or the Subcaves. The latter option is generally for more advanced players, but there are other specific (new) advantages to going that route as well. (As described before, Subcaves, Scraptown, and a new future map-to-come are all part of the same UFD arc on which the current expansion is focused--they're all tied together on some level.)

Access from the Storage direction is locked behind a door that requires either a manual code you've learned in another run from a particular major NPC who told you as much (easiest way), or cutting a hole with a Plasma Cutter, or melting your way through with an engine bomb, or maybe you've found one of the items that will automatically hack nearby doors for you. 01-MTF will also be happy to help if he shows up.

Across multiple trips you'll learn more about the UFD's history and where they're from, which will also help explain why they are where they are, a bit out of the way. On repeated visits you'll also find that the contents can vary significantly--there are a lot of possibilities, while at the same time offering some guaranteed encounters you can take advantage of if you plan for them, once you know what they are.

If you have any questions or need help, or just want to share, feel free to drop by the Discord server since that's where most of the active players hang out, as well as where I am every day most of the day, and is also where most Cogmind streaming takes place.

In a general departure from other potential allied factions, you'll find there are often some items found locally which you must be hostile to obtain, though some of these are incredibly rewarding in and of themselves (alongside some potential drawbacks later, for being hostile). The overall balance and considerations regarding these particular items will be changing somewhat in Beta 15, so don't worry about those too much yet, although patrons testing out the prerelease have been more than happy to murder everyone to get everything that they want xD (it's not exactly easy, but if well-prepared yeah you can do it...)

But the most important thing to know about Scraptown and the UFD is that there is more to come. In order to let you play with this substantial update rather than sit on all of it until the entire expansion is complete, as previously announced the final part of the UFD experience will be coming in Beta 15, including a new ending and more outlying and/or UFD-related late-game content. As is their main plot line has not been included, since it would be weird to have that introduced but not be able to see it through, so for now you can use the opportunity to get acquainted with them and take advantage of all the new items and other features while I continue working on that. In Beta 15 there will be another NPC to help fill you in on long-term goals, but until then if you do join them make sure to read their central terminals, in particular about Project Fedlink and related. (I've already finished a chunk of Beta 15 content, by necessity as it is of course tightly coupled with Beta 14. A sizeable portion of Beta 14 content itself was actually completed last year, long before Beta 13 was even released :P So this version has been in production for much of the last year.)

In the meantime there is a lot to get acquainted with, considering not only all the new mechanics but also the new NPCs and lore. This single release increases the total lore by 52% (purely counting by the number of entries which are added to your collection on discovery), and the number of items by 8% (up to 1,156 collectible/usable components now) so those out there adding to their collections will have plenty more to uncover.

If you do want some content spoilers, late last year I shared a series of articles starting with this one about Cogmind's "post-balance" item expansion which provides some context for the wild new mechanics we're getting and shares some specific examples along with their design. Those things and many many more are all accessible in game now.

For a general video introduction to Scraptown and the UFD, I've been streaming some of my own playtest runs in recent weeks, starting with the first here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MQDS2bHvKQ

Not really the best tight introduction, just a long stream recording (followed by others), but if you're interested it's there :)

In a related development, the Scrap Engine introduced back in Beta 12, which enables a very different play style and since then has just been given for free at the entrance to Recycling, now lives in its proper home, which won't take long to find if you are visiting that same map with the new destination in mind. Also you'll probably have somewhat fewer questions about how it works, because it now comes with a complete in-game, in-theme manual, as planned :)

Good luck, scrapper!

QoL

Beta 14 isn't just about content, as always there's a fair share of QoL goodness to streamline various parts of the experience or expand the number of optional interface customizations.

One of the most desirable features is a way to manually swap a part on the ground directly with an attached part, when the autoswap behavior doesn't find any obvious swaps to make, thereby allowing you to swap in a completely different part type from the ground if needed. Normally you would have to first have to remove an attached part, or at least add the desired part to your inventory in order to perform such a swap, but now you can perform a manual replacement by simply repeating the attach command ('a'/LMB) a second time (i.e. after the autoswap system reports no suitable targets) in order to chose the part to replace, like so:

Another new feature sure to be of use for mouse users is the ability to swap pairs of attached and inventory parts back and forth by clicking on the ticks to the left of attached parts, which are there to indicate you are still in possession of whatever part was in that slot before:

As you can see, once the cursor is held over the tick/button for a moment, it will also pop up all the names of existing valid pairs.

(Keyboard users have quick access to the reswap feature as usual via the normal swap functionality and 'Y'.)

Adventurer/Explorer mode players who have an existing usable save state will now be shown a reminder and prompted for confirmation if attempting to restart or quit on the game over screen, which should help avoid accidentally restarting in such a scenario:

We now have a dedicated indicator in the part info window (as well as corresponding context help if you click on it, as usual) for those which are destroyed on removal, the term for which is FRAGILE. Originally this behavior was specific to certain part types, Processors and by extension Hackware, but over the years for balance reasons this behavior has been extended to a number of other special parts, so we ideally need to know which those are before attaching them, mainly for those of you encountering them for the first time. Sample:

The main HUD also has a few siutuational updates such as reflecting corruption immunity status if applicable, and a change in the RIF button to include the number of abilities known (adds useful information to screenshots!):

That button doesn't normally display in keyboard mode, which accesses RIF info via the spacebar menu, but in order to display the RIF ability count it will now report the same information as non-interactive text.

Also useful to know for screenshots (rather than something you'll likely forget is happening...), the HUD also shows high/max security or sterilization if any are applicable. This is not something you need RIF to know, since it's announced--not the same thing as precise alert level at all times, which you would need to learn via other means.

Beta 13 and its new modal UI layouts were made possible in part through a combination of being able to hide the inventory and even shrink the parts list by removing type headers to keep the inventory visible through a greater number of depths. But some players reportedly really liked having no part type headers at all, even when removing them was not necessary to save space, so by request I've added a new advanced.cfg feature "alwaysCondenseSlotTypeHeaders" to always hide those regardless of slot count. For example this is what it would look like upon just starting a new run with the initial 7 slots:

Another new option (itemLabelIntegrityPercent) implemented by request replaces raw integrity values displayed alongside map item labels with percent integrity values:

Personally I don't think this is as useful raw numbers, since the general integrity percent is already reflected in the label color, but some apparently prefer it regardless. Try it out if you're in that boat!

This next one I mainly implemented for fun one day, plus it looks cool and technically can help visualize more information at a glance, but the new "dynamicPathDistanceHue" option displays paths with shifting color based on distance from your position to the destination:

That's the path shown when moving the cursor around (although above brightened by holding Ctrl-Alt, which is how you could always highlight the path for better temporary visibility). Keyboard players normally won't see it, but can also now display a path to their examine/targeting cursor by holding Ctrl-Alt (and technically path there via the spacebar menu!).

If you're a Scrap Engine user also making use of the new modal UI layouts, you'll be happy to know that the content list will be shifted under active messages rather than letting them obscure it, in case you need that info at the same time:

Multitile Bots

It's finally here: For several major updates now I've wanted to include a dedicated pass over multitile robot behavior, especially when allied with you, since having them follow standard ally behavior could be problematic in many cases, to say the least. Having completed the desired enhancements I'm happy to announce that the big guys in Beta 14 are much more enjoyable to partner with!

For pathfinding purposes they are not nearly as limited as before, and are capable of smart behaviors like spreading out and actively trying to stay out of your way. Here you can see a test group of multitile allies following in a sort of "caravan" formation to avoid bunching up:

They've also got some new complementary abilities to facilitate pathing, such as pushing smaller/regular-sized bots out of the way, as in this demo:

This and related changes do, however, mean that hostile multitile robots are going to be that much scarier if they discover your presence, so look out for that! Finally proper nightmarish Behemoth encounters :D

Normally for releases and/or progress updates I'll have a number of articles I've written to point to for more details, but this time I've been pouring the entirety of recent months directly into development (not to mention working mostly on things I don't want to spoil by writing about them in advance :P), so there isn't so much of that this time. However with Beta 14 released there are definitely some topics I'd like to cover, including for example a sequel to my older piece on Developing Multitile Creatures in Roguelikes, this time looking at advances made in that area to improve the experience. For now, if you'd like to read a bit more about the development of multitile bots and some other newer features, I do have one post in particular on Patreon which shared related updates along with some more info and samples earlier this year when I was working on it (now public): The Features [Temporarily] Left Behind But Not Forgotten.

Balance

Not a lot of balance changes this time around, though there are a few particularly noteworthy ones you'll want to be aware of.

Corruption has a negative effect on accuracy (-corruption/4%), giving it another persistent drawback at higher levels and therefore a real reason to seriously consider not letting it get that high. Many players/some builds don't necessarily care even if it's at 50%+, but that will be a bit more problematic now since it will often cancel out some of your targeting bonuses. To some extent this also works to your advantage if using EM to attack targets, other bots being more susceptible to corruption to begin with, meaning even just one or two attacks will already start making it harder for them to accurately retaliate. However bots other than Cogmind instead use X/8% for their formula since they can gain corruption so easily (good news for your allies, at least).

Reaction Control Systems now providing their full benefits to legs means you probably want to consider them as a serious slot contender in your melee leg builds.

Cryofiber, the niche supplementary cooling option, got an outright buff via synergy with Heat Sinks, significantly increasing their cooling potential. You can put together your own multislot cooling system with greater functionality, and Heat Sinks are easy to come by... It's cool now! So try to break the habit of ignoring it :)

The most generally impactful balance adjustment is an update to resistances of heavy doors and reinforced barriers. It was always kinda weird that strong doors were more easily circumvented by going through the surrounding walls instead, not to mention said walls and doors had become easier to get through given the greater and greater collection of more powerful tools (basically weapons), so those walls and doors now have matching resistances, and are no longer comparatively weaker to melee weapons. Melee weapons do still do more damage than projectile weapons, in particular impact weapons and high momentum providing an alternative method of accessing some areas, though this change also solidifies the Plasma Cutter's position as a useful tool.

And that's today's summary heralding the curious arrival of the United Federation of Derelicts! As mentioned, work on Beta 15 has already begun, though no idea when that will go out. We'll be exploring yet another new map, this one promising some serious action, and of course the aforementioned extended UFD features.

In the near term we'll have Beta 13 player stats to examine, no doubt interesting given the influx of new players this year following the combined effect of Cogmind adding zooming/large text layouts and the video by DoshDoshington.

You can go meet this fellow today. Play nice :)