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Cogmind Beta 10 Feature Voting

  • Full mouse UI for machine hacking 4
  • Drone overhaul 20
  • Improved allied AI behavior 18
  • Revamped combat log 11
  • On-map item searching and filtering 12
  • Item database 7
  • Built-in lore searching 7
  • In-game score history data and leaderboards 2
  • General UI info expansion 5
  • Achievement progress indicators 4
  • In-game access to most advanced.cfg options 9
  • 2020-01-13
  • —2020-03-19
  • 99 votes
{'title': 'Cogmind Beta 10 Feature Voting', 'choices': [{'text': 'Full mouse UI for machine hacking', 'votes': 4}, {'text': 'Drone overhaul', 'votes': 20}, {'text': 'Improved allied AI behavior', 'votes': 18}, {'text': 'Revamped combat log', 'votes': 11}, {'text': 'On-map item searching and filtering', 'votes': 12}, {'text': 'Item database', 'votes': 7}, {'text': 'Built-in lore searching', 'votes': 7}, {'text': 'In-game score history data and leaderboards', 'votes': 2}, {'text': 'General UI info expansion', 'votes': 5}, {'text': 'Achievement progress indicators', 'votes': 4}, {'text': 'In-game access to most advanced.cfg options', 'votes': 9}], 'closes_at': datetime.datetime(2020, 3, 19, 10, 13, 53, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2020, 1, 13, 6, 38, 13, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allows_multiple': True, 'total_votes': 99}

Content

It's that time again, to vote for which of these features you want to see most in Beta 10! As a major release it will of course include many other things, but among the following optional features, I'll implement whichever you all want to prioritize:

  • Full mouse UI for machine hacking: A set of mouse-driven menus would be added giving keyboard-free access to every single machine hack, including all (known) manual Trojans/brute force hacks. Technically this menu system would also be available and of use to keyboard players as well, listing every option. This feature would be optional, and by default probably on for Adventurer/Explorer and off for Rogue.
  • Drone overhaul: Redesign drones and their behavior to reduce the incentive/capability to micromanage them (attempt to eliminate tedium). Add a way to center on and follow active drones. Add several new drone types, and a number of other drone updates and improvements.
  • Improved allied AI behavior: Reduce micromanagement of allies, while also making them a bit smarter. Don't expect them to be genius or anything, because semi-stupid allies are pretty crucial to the balance, but stuff like non-combat allies actively avoiding enemies would be a thing. By default this voting option overlaps a little with the Drone overhaul, but wouldn't be quite as extensive as far as drone-specific changes go.
  • Revamped combat log: The combat log was thrown together shortly after the 7DRL in 2012 to satisfy player requests, not really designed for Cogmind's modern form. I'm honestly not sure how it would specifically be improved, but there have been multiple calls to do that in the past, so everyone can offer further suggestions if this is chosen.
  • On-map item searching and filtering: We already have some forms of filtering, but this feature would be interactive, allowing you to more quickly find specific or general items across the map or within just the current map view itself. Basically searching and filtering by type, name, partial name, etc.
  • Item database: Although the current item gallery provides access to discovered item info, it was originally intended purely for ASCII art viewing (the first versions didn't even allow the info window!), thus it isn't great for quickly looking up info about items since that wasn't what it was designed for (although note that you can hit the first letter key of a target item's base name to skip to that section in the gallery!). A new interface would make it much easier to explore known items.
  • Built-in lore searching: A new in-game interface would make it possible to search for references within the lore, and if possible maybe even highlight key terms and make those interactive as well.
  • In-game score history data and leaderboards: Instead of scorehistory.txt, stat overviews of future runs would be available via a new interface in the Records section  (including sorting by score rank or time). With this we'd also get in-game global leaderboard support.
  • General UI info expansion: Add item info to the part swap UI (probably optional), and known analyses and robot info to the status window.
  • Achievement progress indicators: Checkable progress towards unearned achievements in the current run, list of win achievements still available in the current run, list of achievements that will be earned if the run is won, and more.
  • In-game access to most advanced.cfg options: The majority of Cogmind's options are actually in this external text file (and described in the manual), but a separate menu system would be added to give easier access to most of them. (Just a few of those storing more complicated data might still only be accessible from the file itself.)

Everyone is encouraged to vote for more than one option, though only the feature with the most votes will make it into Beta 10. Voting is open and ongoing until I start implementing whatever has the highest vote count.

Remember that anything that doesn't make it might still become part of the game one day, it'll just take (much) longer, or can be voted in for the next release, since I'll revive this same list (and possibly expand it!) for Beta 11 :D

Comments

Michael Powers

I feel like some of these are close enough to one another that they will end up splitting votes. (Particularly my favorite two, drone and allied AI behavior ; ) ) Consider holding a runoff vote once a particular "category" pulls ahead?

Kyzrati

Splitting votes shouldn't really be an issue, though, since you can and should vote for more than one option, and you should vote for all the ones you want to prioritize! We could consider a runoff, which could definitely affect the results, although it would only be likely to do so for *other* reasons (namely that people aren't voting for all the ones they would like development to prioritize xD). Not super interested in adding extra posts and further lengthening the voting processes just to have a runoff for that reason, and forcing people to come back to vote again for something they already voted for before... But anyway, wait and see.