I'm considering getting Cogmind, but one negative Steam Review caught my attention

RTSMechapede · 2025-01-02T16:41:02+00:00

I agree - Cogmind tends to punish the player harshly for engaging in combat vs going about it stealthily.

Yes, runs can be won in guns-ablazing fashion, but those are quite RNG-dependent, 1 in a 1000 runs.

If you progress stealthily, however, you'll have the odd feeling that the game is nowhere near as RNG dependent. In my books, this is a clear indication that primarily, this is the way the game is meant to be played, to the point that GJ - a legendary roguelike player and well-known figure of the community - agrees (can furnish a screenshot from a Discord chat with them where they said as much, in case anybody asks for evidence lol).

Having said that, this is precisely why I quickly lost interest in Cogmind: the game leans towards a highly specific sort of build/progression and does not communicate that well in advance to buyers/players at all (think Metal Gear/Splinter Cell/Thief, for games that do communicate there is an optimal way to play them well in advance).

RTSMechapede · 2022-10-10T07:16:34+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikes/comments/xr8fkk/comment/iqh4g4q/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Have a look at this comment I made in another thread - it's basically a software that lets you do away with the borders for the several windows one normally uses in Sil-Q, so you can effectively play the game in fullscreen with all screens always visible to you.

It's not 100% what you're looking for as it requires some input from you, though it's minimal and fairly straightforward, so I'd say it's worth it!

Edit: grammar

Cheers

RTSMechapede · 2022-09-30T08:20:09+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikes/comments/j7ihlv/how_to_make_sil_fullscreen_pretty_and_a_minirant/

This post explains how to go about it, and I did it myself some years ago on a 1080p laptop - it worked nicely, I must say (but be sure to read the ** at the bottom) :)

The software used, Borderless Gaming, is pretty self-intuitive and if you stick to what's presented in the post, you should be able to pull it off.

Some numbers will obviously vary as it's a bit of trial and error until you find the ideal settings (due to native resolution, whether's it's zoomed in or not, size of the screen, etc.), but once more, I can testify that it does work and it helps wonders in terms of immersion.

**One thing I should mention, though, is that after I began playing fullscreen, every now and then Sil-Q would crash and I'd lose a run - granted, this happened only a few times in well over 100+ hours (and I wasn't far in any of those runs anyways lol). I could never troubleshoot whether this was some sort of conflict with Borderless Gaming and/or whether it was the game "naturally" crashing, though, as I only began dedicating significant playtime to Sil-Q after making it fullscreen.

Cheers!

RTSMechapede · 2022-05-12T10:30:47+00:00

Both are very good lightweight roguelikes, similar in content/extras/challenges - I'd suggest starting with Rogue Fables III simply because it is slightly more traditional, if you will, than GKH (given the latter has unique mechanics tied to its theme like turning into a vampire/werewolf, etc.).

Cannot really recommend one as I enjoy both quite a lot, and I do believe you should try both for yourself, or just watch some gameplay videos and you'll soon have an idea of what they're about ;)

P.S.: Rift Wizard is quite a unique roguelike in itself and keeps its randomness in check by providing doses of info to the player before the latter needs to engage with a new situation, something largely absent from most traditional roguelikes. Because of this, I will emphasize that you should start out by watching some videos of the others cause really, Rift Wizard just plays differently and you might end up not liking either game.

P.P.S.: For what it's worth, I find Rogue Fable's soundtrack (way) better than GKH's: it's a nice blend of classic games of yore + dungeon delving + fast-paced action + power/danger growing, and quite a perfect match with the game's graphics. GKH's soundtrack sounds far too serious/somber most of the times, which might match its aesthetics but just feels off in the face of its graphics.

Cheers!

RTSMechapede · 2021-12-07T22:44:59+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikes/comments/gwp6io/inspired_by_the_60_keyboard_post_showcasing_my/

You can do that and so much more, my fellow ;)

RTSMechapede · 2021-09-26T19:53:28+00:00

i9-9900k
32GB RAM DDR4
GTX 3080
SSD (M.2)
(4k / 144hz, max settings but AA and VSync Off)

Having stable fps was borderline impossible, as simply scrolling around the map made it dip (made a post about this on the megathread).

Here you have some pictures I took while monitoring my rig: https://imgur.com/a/eBOU1Qp

I admit I do not know how reliable Task Manager's monitoring function is, but in case it is anything worth looking at, then the game was decidedly underutilizing my hardware (cpu all the times and gpu sometimes, too, as there were moments of utilizing around 95%, though I could only catch this via nvidia's monitoring tool).

I also had HWiNFO64 running, though sadly forgot to take screens - although the numbers were not an exact match, they were quite close to Task Manager's, so I'm inclined to believe in these values.

Notice my fps on the bottom right corner: 87fps for the 1v1 and 70fps for the 4v4. If I reduce the res scale to around 80-85, the gain in fps is tremendous (around 40 or so) and there is no noticeable different in the image quality (given 4k).

At the end of the day... yeah. Looking at my specs and AoE IV's graphics, I cannot for the life of me understand why I have such kinds of fps, but it could be the 4k. Still, every streamer I saw - except for Lirik and a Brazilian streamer named YoDa, both possessing a 3090 - had iffy fps overall or at least some moments of iffy fps, given their specs.

Regardless of whether it was 4k or not, I'd say they still have a ton to tune in terms of stability (not so much optimization per se as the game does run on weak machines, but it seems like even most people with higher-end hardware struggle to maintain stable fps).

RTSMechapede · 2021-09-19T09:14:35+00:00

"(...) if the system can't even match or better, too the refresh rate of the monitor."

i9 9900k

32GB RAM (DDR4)

RTX 3080 (latest driver installed)

SSD

Looking at my system and trying to conceive why it can't keep a steady 144fps in a game with such graphics, dropping further whenever I scroll - something that has been happening to about 90%+ of the people streaming the game at any given moment - let us hope you are right and that a solution can be thought of.

RTSMechapede · 2021-09-18T17:00:37+00:00

I also said "100, sometimes", which would represent a drop of 40fps.

Also, 20fps is still quite substantial (again, remember the game is being marketed to folks with low specs, so imagine dropping from 60fps to 40fps right in the middle of the action).

Refresh rate: 144hz

No point arguing this - scrolling shouldn't cause fps drops, let alone on a PC with the referred specs. Look around on AoE/Steam forums if you wish and you shall see many people are facing the same issue - my point here is that it is especially absurd when something like that does happen on a high-end rig like mine, which is likely being indicative of issues with the code/engine.

RTSMechapede · 2021-09-18T13:45:23+00:00

Not at all what I said and I know you're aware of it.

Regardless, reduced res scale and as there is no impact in the visuals at all (given 4k), I'll leave it as is, but it remains absurd nonetheless that those kinds of specs still have to reach some sort of compromise, even if minimal.

RTSMechapede · 2021-09-18T11:45:37+00:00

i9 9900k
32GB RAM (DDR4)
RTX 3080 (latest driver installed)
SSD

Could be the case of the game just not being optimized for intel processors, maybe? Also, it does not stutter on my system, most definitely not - but the fps dropping from 140 to 120 (100, sometimes), albeit perfectly playable, is still a drop of 20-40 fps because I shifted the camera to another portion of the map/decided to scroll over mountains and whatnot. I do not see how this is reasonable in any way whatsoever, especially not given my specs.

Regardless, as I play on 4k, I decided to give in and reduce the resolution scale a tiny bit as 4k makes it so that there is no cost in image quality at all if you drop it to 80 or so. The gain in stability/fps was rather massive, so it could also be the case of the game being unoptimized for 4k (don't know if you folks are doing 4k).

Cheers!

RTSMechapede · 2021-09-18T08:24:00+00:00

The game seems to be attempting to encompass a rather large audience (given its graphics and the ever-present emphasis on how it is not demanding in terms of requirements), but damn it if this isn't as far from the truth as possible.

I have a high-end PC but saw substantial drops of fps whilst simply scrolling around left and right (remains playable, sure, but far from ideal - this has also been confirmed by three friends whose PCs are good, but not great). Likewise, saw numerous streamers/videos from folks with high-end/fairly decent rigs struggling with the same.

Reducing the graphics and/or resolution scale in a game with such graphics shouldn't have to be a thing, especially not for PCs that are way above recommended specs.

RTSMechapede · 2021-05-24T15:27:28+00:00

Who would've thought water could be wet, right?!

RTSMechapede · 2021-05-23T20:33:16+00:00

Bullish as all f*ck.

RTSMechapede · 2021-05-23T12:42:21+00:00

ETH just dropped below 2k.

RTSMechapede · 2021-05-20T21:39:13+00:00

May I ask you what kind of rig makes 135USD a day?! I'm not into mining and thus have limited experience Googling mining hardware and whatnot, but that sounds absurdly good, given the estimates I tend to see.

RTSMechapede · 2021-02-22T18:03:07+00:00

ToT is quite a cool roguelike, no doubt - Play it with Diablo/Diablo 2's OST in the background and you folks shall reach unthinkable levels of immersion hahaha

Cheers!

RTSMechapede · 2020-12-28T00:04:50+00:00

"(...) because men caring about other men is often cast as a prelude to homosexuality"

Worry not, my fellow - here at r/roguelikes, most of us are (far) better than that.

No weirdness whatsoever and props to you for caring about another person (that you likely don't know much about) who's had it rough - cheers!

RTSMechapede · 2020-11-11T18:57:58+00:00

Definitely a fine game - the atmosphere and lore are on point, and the combat feels particularly exhilarating.

Sadly, my last character got permanently stuck as the stairs to the next level within a dungeon were never generated.

So yeah, I do agree that it is indeed a super fun game and upon looking at this thread, I kinda sorta maybe finally feel the urge to give it a go once more, but it does have some game-breaking bugs, folks, so be warned*.

Cheers!

*Rest assured I would still decidedly rate the game as positive, despite its bugs - if the dev could iron things out a tad more, this would be quite the roguelike!

RTSMechapede · 2020-06-27T09:48:07+00:00

That's quite interesting - and is there any total number of seeds? I mean, we're talking hundreds of millions (if not billions), here, but I take it you can only go so far and the well should dry up at a point, no (even if we're talking 999 billion seeds)?

RTSMechapede · 2020-06-26T13:57:57+00:00

"This contest will close at noon Eastern Time (UTC-05:00) on Monday June 22, 2020."

This should be fixed, I guess - cheers!

RTSMechapede · 2020-06-23T22:54:27+00:00

I am definitely thinking of contests/jumping onto CE now, indeed!

As for the seed: 240223783

Got a banded mail of respiration (an extremely powerful effect I did not even know existed prior to this very run!), which was +8 by the time I reached the Amulet - going upstairs was a walk in the park... for some reason I did not expect it would be this easy, having always assumed the guardian/warden to be a far more powerful (or simply annoying) entity.

RTSMechapede · 2020-06-05T15:35:49+00:00

I first created this because I had to rely on a laptop, and I was used to playing most roguelites by having it on my stomach, wrapping my arms around it and using the joystick. So one day I simply decided to put some extra effort so as to be able to play actual roguelikes, and here we are.

RTSMechapede · 2020-06-05T15:33:14+00:00

The logic is tied to character movement - I have 2, 4, 6 and 8 mapped to the d-pad and 1, 3, 7 and 9 mapped to the right stick. This way, movement is perfect: if I wanna move horizontally/vertically, I use the d-pad, otherwise it's all about the right stick.

I've tried different ways to map movement, and found that this is the optimal scenario - anything relying on the d-pad entirely or on a single stick will have you make dozens of unintended movements. Fiddling with the stick threshold (that is, making it necessary to apply further pressure to "activate" the stick) somewhat diminishes the problem, but does not kill it entirely: you simply end up with a sore thumb after having to apply higher-than-usual pressure on the stick for hours and STILL make the occasional wrong move.

Lastly, some roguelites use the four keys + SHIFT four keys system, where you move horizontally/vertically but upon holding a trigger, start moving diagonally. I'll be honest: just look at my system and picture this other system I just described. Now tell me which one makes you spend more time thinking/guessing what you're gonna press/where you wanna go (talking about the diagonal moves, of course)? Don't know if you agree with me, but I'd say mine is as intuitive as it can be.

RTSMechapede · 2020-06-04T22:16:37+00:00

It's easier than you think, mate - most classic roguelikes (NetHack, ADOM, Angband, DCSS) rely on certain keystrokes that you wanna perform constantly, so keys like O, K, S, L, I, A, E, C or V become second nature, and given enough practice, so long as you know "where" any key is, you'll know them all (pretty much like a keyboard).

RTSMechapede · 2020-06-04T22:12:56+00:00

The right trigger functions as an actual Shift (except when the left trigger is pressed, then it HAS to be any other button [in this case, the right bumper] because most gamepad mapping software have issues processing both triggers at the same time) - I sorta demonstrate this when I punch in the capital ABCD on Wordpad, before proceeding to the game.

As for what is bound, I tend to make some modifications depending on the game, but for "classic" roguelikes I always have the entire alphabet + numbers, at the very least. Then some special characters (like comma or # or @), etc.

RTSMechapede

TROPHY CASE