Hark! The new HARC cometh!

While we wait for votes... new Cogmind QoL features! Yes, Heavy ARCs are also a sort of QoL, as you'll see ;)

At the start of this week I prepared the minor feature list for Beta 16, and have been making very good progress chipping away at that, especially with the extra day available--I was supposed to stream the conclusion to my 0bPrime run on Tuesday, but postponed that since my son has the flu, and me shouting into a mic about my UFD allies early in the morning was probably not a good idea :P

After clearing out a bunch of little bugs that needed addressing, I switched over to some QoL work...

One of the features that's been on my list for years, accumulating notes and awaiting an update ever since it was first implemented, is the item search window. It finally percolated to the top of my list and we're getting a few extra useful behaviors there, like finally allowing searches to consider unknown/prototype parts!

This was apparently intended to begin with, but it turns out there was a big of a logic issue that ended up culling them from lists they should otherwise be included in (given their special state in which you only have "partial knowledge" about what they are).

In the past item searching always used the integrity view for listed items, but now if you're in info mode (Q), it can show that instead! This might allow you to better see the effects of rating-based filters, if you use those, or just generally more quickly identify the basic stats for a part you may have forgotten the details of.

Text searching also allows for exclusion of a string by inserting a '-' before it, for example "-corr" to exclude corrupted parts (not essential but sure why not :P):

We also have some new advanced options regarding more persistent data visualizations on the map. Normally the map view avoids using too many permanent extra indicators, since they can be distracting, but in the past I'd identified some features that I thought might be interesting or useful to have as permanent options for some folks.

The first is map comments. Of course there are customizable map comment indicators that mark each location, but to see the contents you have to enter comment mode. Well how about always (well intermittently based on your settings) showing the full text alongside the marker, which may not be too distracting if you're the sort of player to leave only occasional short comments... Here's that option in action, with both an automated and manual comment:

There's also an option to always shown the detection warning radius for known Heavies nearby, the same info you can see when putting your cursor over them:

(I'm putting myself in the wall there just so we can watch two Heavies rotate past :P)

hARC

Among the other long-term notes I have finally converted into reality... we have a new variant of the Carrier class Previously ARCs have always belonged to one of those rarer single-variant classes, but come Beta 16 you'll (maybe) be seeing a new type of ARC: C-45 Heavy ARC.

For quite a while now I've been sitting on the possibility of adding a new ARC, saving the idea for a special future case that simply hadn't materialized yet, but was more recently inspired to put it in action to address an occasional annoyance: ARC confusion.

More than once we've seen folks who aren't aware there's a difference between an assault and a patrol roaming around in an ARC, plus of course even if you're an experienced player there are situations where you may not be sure which is which unless you watch for a bit. Viewed in QoL terms, it would be really nice if these uses were more explicitly differentiated!

So from now on regular patrols use the old ARC, and any other instances (mostly assaults) use the new Heavy variant (which is red).

Naturally now that we've differentiated the two we also have further leeway to consider other changes beyond the purely cosmetic! Assaults may sometimes get even closer to visible targets before deploying (if not shot at beforehand), which could be interesting. They'll also be better protected, with core shielding and a switch to Armored Huge Wheels, making them a little slower but also more durable. Also good news for Garrison divers who want to salvage some of those sweet wheels ;)

See this Heavy ARC test with closer deployment:

And a comparison between a patrolling ARC and... ARCs of a different persuasion...

In addition to reflecting their different purpose, adding this variant will be a nice reinforcement of the idea that their respective contents are different, too! Good changes overall.

Beta 16 Voting Progress

Beta 16 feature voting has only been up for five days, and that hasn't included a weekend yet so definitely still more time to go on that. Be sure to get your votes in if you haven't already!

"Encounters package" and "Scanalyzer expansion" were neck and neck until just today, with the latter pulling slightly ahead. Bothacking expansion also has quite a lot of support but can't really compete anymore, so at this point it's probably just between the other two...

Make a Roguelike

Normally I would've held off on posting an update so soon after a previous one, but in this case I also wanted to make a timely enough announcement about an event starting this week: RoguelikeDev Does The Complete Roguelike Tutorial!

We do this every year in the dev community, and I like to bring it up here as well since many Cogmind players are also software devs, or at least have an interest in the field/hobby, and may want to try their hand at making a simple roguelike or playing around with some new language or library. Heck, even people without any experience can join the event since there are tutorials and others to help out if you need it (both on our Discord server and the Reddit sub).

Anyway, it just started a few days ago, and the pacing is reasonably slow so joining a week or two late is no big deal either. If you want to try your hand at building a roguelike, consider joining :)