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 Cogmind README                                  version: Beta 11
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- Introduction 
- Installation & Play
- Migration
- Thank You
- Credits
- License
- Privacy Policy
- More Information

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 Introduction
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Experience sci-fi tactical combat and exploration in a procedural world that combines traditional roguelikes with an immersive modern interface like no other. Build yourself from components found or salvaged from other robots. Attach power sources, propulsion units, utilities, and weapons to become a slow tank bristling with weapons, or a fast-moving flier zipping past enemies before they even have time to react, or a stealthy sword-wielding assassin/hacker, or whatever else you can come up with from the salvage you find. The situation can quickly change as you lose components and rebuild yourself from enemy remains. You are the Cogmind. Discover what that means as you explore a living, breathing world ruled by robots.

Cogmind is currently in Beta development. The story and gameplay are complete, but more features and content are coming as we progress towards a full 1.0 release.


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 Installation & Play
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Cogmind is completely DRM free, and for now comes with no automated installer.

Simply uncompress the game files and run COGMIND.exe to play. (See Troubleshooting below for common issues.)

 System Requirements
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OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E6300 @ 1.86GHz / AMD Athlon II Dual-Core M320
RAM: 500 MB
Video Card: N/A
Disk Space: 60 MB
Minimum resolution: 1272x720 (Tiles), 800x600 (ASCII)

* CPU is the most limiting factor, and while Cogmind will run on much slower machines, actions may not play out as smoothly. One option to enable play on old systems is to run the game in a smaller window. Required RAM is the likely maximum for the game itself, excluding that required by your operating system and other background programs you use at the same time.

 Troubleshooting
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* Cogmind must have write access to its directory (in Windows, depending on your settings this may require running it with admin rights, otherwise it could crash or not save your progress). Note that programs put in your Program Files directory will by default not have admin rights. Anti-virus software that quarantines/sandboxes Cogmind will also probably prevent the game from creating or saving files, in which case you'll be able to play only to find that your progress and configuration options were not saved. Make sure Cogmind is not restricted by AV programs! If Cogmind doesn't start up in fullscreen mode the first time it's run, it has probably been sandboxed.

* If Cogmind complains about DLL files, your system needs the MSVC++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86), which can be downloaded and installed from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999. After clicking "Download" it will list multiple versions, and the one you need is "vcredist_x86.exe". (Alternatively, the required files can be installed manually by downloading "msvcp100.dll" and "msvcr100.dll" from the web and putting them in your "windows/system32" directory, but the Microsoft installer is a simpler and quicker approach.)

* Cogmind cannot be run from a directory path that contains non-English characters (on some systems this may include your desktop!).

* On startup, Cogmind always defines its display size and layout based on your primary monitor's current resolution. Restarting the program is required to properly reflect any changes in resolution or OS pixel scaling.

* Linux users: Cogmind is Windows only, but runs normally under Wine. (Wine may not be able to install the redistributable, and can instead use the above alternate method--put the DLLs in the "windows/system32" directory created by Wine.) See this thread for help: http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=182.0
Cogmind can also be easily installed and run on Linux via Steam using Steam Play, once "Enable Steam Play for all titles" is set in your Steam settings.

* OSX users: Cogmind can run fine using a variety of solutions. See this thread for help:
http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=29
(there's also a quick video tutorial here: https://youtu.be/9ypp8giWqS0)

* If you feel the in-game cursor is too small, or if it won't appear at all for some reason (for example under some Wine setups), you can likely resolve this by switching from the default hardware cursor to a custom software cursor. See the manual under Advanced UI > Custom Cursors for the simple steps to do this. (Note that if your cursor has disappeared only after you've been playing, you likely hid the cursor by activating keyboard mode in the options menu or via F2, so in that case just toggle it back on.)

 Controls
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Press Escape, F1 or '?' to access both the basic and advanced command lists. The game can be played entirely by keyboard (press F2 to enter keyboard mode and hide the cursor) and/or almost entirely by mouse.

 Options
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A large number of features are customizable via the in-game options menu (F1->4). Most importantly, there you can choose whether to use the tileset or ASCII (or just press F3 in game to switch on the fly).

I'd also appreciate if you activate both online reporting features available in the options (both are off by default). You can read more about those options and what they do on the menu.


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 Migration
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When updating to a new version, to retain all your settings and meta progress (like item collection stats) simply copy the contents of the /user/ directory over to the new game.

Also remember to copy any contents of the /scores/ directory if you'd like to save them.

Saved games are not compatible between major version changes, so finish any previous run before migrating.


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 Thank You
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A big thanks to all of you for supporting Cogmind during alpha and beta development! The more support we have the better for the future of the game, so I'd appreciate if you could tell others how much you enjoy playing and spread the word by sharing our epic trailer :D
https://youtu.be/fAuTK72ynTE


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 Credits
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Cogmind was created by Josh Ge (Kyzrati).

PROGRAMMING / DESIGN / ASCII ART / SOUND DESIGN
- Josh Ge > www.gridsagegames.com

OFFICIAL TILESET
- Kacper Wozniak > twitter.com/ThKasparrr

LEADERBOARDS DATABASE
- Will Glynn > github.com/willglynn

TRAILER SCORE
- Alex Yoder > www.alexyoder.net


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 License
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Copyright (C) 2012-2020 Josh Ge and Grid Sage Games. All rights reserved.

Have fun. Don't steal. Feel free to do Let's Plays.


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 Privacy Policy
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Score uploading for the leaderboards is opt-in only, activated in the options menu. As per that option's description, activating this setting requires that you be at least 16 years of age.

The uploaded data is identical to the score sheets produced at the end of your run (found in the game's /scoresheets/ directory), and the only potentially personally identifying information included within is your Player Name as well as a unique identifying number (in case you later change your Player Name, so that old scores can remain associated with the new name). Score data is stored only as public text files found at www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/scores/, both for the purpose of sharing your performance with other players and also aggregate analysis used to improve the game experience.

For the latest version of the complete Grid Sage Games Privacy Policy, including how it pertains to leaderboards, see this page: http://www.gridsagegames.com/privacy_policy.html


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 More Information
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Support/Contact E-mail: gridsagegames@gmail.com
Website   https://www.gridsagegames.com/cogmind/
Forums    https://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/
Wiki      https://www.gridsagegames.com/wiki/
Dev Blog  https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/
Steam     https://store.steampowered.com/app/722730/cogmind/
Twitter   https://twitter.com/GridSageGames
IndieDB   https://www.indiedb.com/games/cogmind
YouTube   https://www.youtube.com/c/Gridsagegames
Discord   https://discord.gg/wQHzAm7
Patreon   https://www.patreon.com/Kyzrati