Beta 13 Progress Update (AKA X2 When?) (Patreon)

Recently I've been getting the occasional question about progress, especially as there have been no more prereleases like we might otherwise have had by now, and although I've been answering those queries in various places when I get them (usually on Discord), I thought I'd also let any folks here have a better idea of where we stand at the moment, in the bigger picture.

First of all, progress is definitely chugging along! Since I posted about the ID Mask, another ten special items have been added (maybe more depending on how they're counted... let's just say things are getting weird in the world of Cogmind).

Unlike previous Betas composed of many individual systems and chunks of content, the vast majority of what's being worked on now revolves pretty tightly around Scraptown itself, which can't realistically be subdivided into multiple smaller releases.

So I've been focused on Scraptown, though after getting the initial shell of the map ready I haven't actually yet gone back to fill it in because in this case it makes more sense to prepare all the stones then build the house all at once, rather than form each stone as the house is coming together. The latter approach will give better results with a map involving so much content, and also allows more freedom to develop the bits and pieces that will come in handy later. Extra freedom usually means more content than planned, since I can keep creating stones without worrying about getting back to the house before I forget the nuances how it's being put together--not very efficient :P

That said, I do really need to get back to that because too much freedom sometimes gets in the way of reaching a goal (one of the items took like two weeks, which I never would've done if I was in the middle of building a map, too xD).

In that light, it's good news that as of this week I'm pretty much done with all the items I need now, and the bots were done amidst all that. Next up is map encounters, writing the lore and NPC interactions, the new faction system... yes of course there's a new faction system and border color ;)

Also I'll finally be commissioning Kacper to draw us some new robots to fill out the ranks again, since there are multiple new classes and NPCs coming.

All that said, I can't say I have a set date for X2 yet, as despite all the progress there's still too much to do! But at least you now have the latest and greatest news from the mind of Cogmind, and soon to follow I'll be sharing some info about more new mechanics. I won't spoil everything of course, but having added all these new items I can afford to whet your appetite with a couple more of them, and write about their design :D