Calling ME-RLN (Patreon)

As you may have noticed, there was no new wizard key for the Beta 13 final release--the same old key applies. Our next key will come out with the first Beta 14 prerelease, but in the meantime I have some other wizardry news to share...

As of Beta 13 we have some new features! 

Part way through working on those screenshots I talked about last time, I convinced myself to spend a little time adding features to make a few things easier, or even possible at all, and I think some of you may benefit from, or want to play with, these features, so I'm documenting them here.

I've also updated the Wizard Mode How-to guide, but here's a summary of the new additions/notes:

• "evo [XXX]": As "go," but also undergoes the proper evolution count for the target depth, including slots (which must be assigned), core integrity, and innate cooling
• "paw [XXX]": As "pa", although when placed the ally will be a non-controllable "white" ally that does not follow Cogmind
• "cc [XXX]": Specify the tag* (see Addendum 3) of a cell to place via cursor command (overrides any previously saved robot tag, e.g. the "pe" command) ("convert_cell")
• Attempting to spawn Artisans outside of the Subcaves will crash the game, so, uh, don't do that :P (they're not currently built to exist in any other map)

I'm fairly sure there are some possible bugs with "evo" not always doing what's intended, such as an incorrect evolution count, but it seems to generally work. (I encountered one bug with it, but wasn't able to repeat that later when I had time to look deeper.)

The guide also got a new addendum now that cell creation is possible. Below is a copy of its initial state as written:

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Addendum 3: Cell Tags

As with robots or any other game objects, cells are referenced by tag rather than name, and in Cogmind pretty much all cell tags are different from their actual names. You'll need to use these in combination with the "cc" command.

Simple cell tags:

• earth
• ground (open ground/dirt)

Most tags are a combination of the general type and the map abbreviation. This is because each map has its own wall type, for example, so that they can assign their own unique values.

Composite cell tag types:

• floor_ (only affects appearance)
• wall_
• barrier_ (Reinforced Barrier)
• door_
• shortcut_ (hidden doors, only affects appearance)
• phasewall_
• stairs_ (wouldn't recommend messing with these)

The full tag for a cell is created by appending the relevant map abbreviation, for example "wall_fac" specifies the Factory wall cell.

This feature was added rather quickly and can probably cause a number of oddities or crashes since it may not apply all possible secondary requirements for manipulating some cell types, I just needed it to make a few simple map edits for screenshot purposes when releasing Beta 13, and piggybacking on the robot creation code was a relatively easy way to do that. If anything, it may be especially bad to try to spawn cells from one map onto another? Haven't tested any of that stuff, no idea :P

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That's not all! Today I also wanted to thank you all and ask if there are any wizard mode features you want in particular? Some clarifications:

• I'm talking simple stuff here, something that could be quick and easy to do, either a new form of/adjustments to an existing feature, or some brand new thing I haven't needed myself but specifically wizard mode users might enjoy or otherwise find useful, but not a full-blown huge new project or major feature that could take a while to implement
• No complete persistent map-wide FOV (yes it's cool and something that I use for some parts of development, but I feel a bit too revealing to allow others access at this point; maybe later)

Of course a full-blown wizard mode would be awesome, with its own UI and user-friendliness etc, but this whole thing is really just meant to provide access to a portion of my crude debugging tools.

And I know it's not easy for everyone to be familiar with what I would consider "simple" or within the realm of features I'd be willing or even able to add, so in that light feel free to suggest/request anything you want, and as many as you want, since even though I probably wouldn't do all of it, I would at least then have a list from which to pick a few suitable items :)

Regardless of what is submitted, as usual the mode will continue to get new features as and when I need them for my work on Cogmind.