Cogmap 2: *** UPDATE TO BYOND 509 ASAP ***

[Dr_Bee]

For me I use the armory when I feel there is a great enough threat, be it syndies or a traitor rampaging. I use the armory to match the firepower of my foes. But the it's the last resort for me. I use the armory when I am outnumber or if I feel the person I need to stop is knows what they are doing. I also give the weapons to my officers when I know they will be overwhelm.

And, let's be honest, it's not like the armory is full of insta-kill machines (though I do think the riot shotguns could do with a slight nerfing, as discussed before)

Well honestly stun guns are insanely powerful at the moment and I feel like both the tasers and the shotguns are instant win weapons currently. Shoot someone once with a taser and they are defenseless, shoot them twice and go in for the kill. Shoot someone once with the shotgun and go in for the kill.

Or go in for the arrest which is what sec officers should be using them for. shotguns may be powerful but they have two downsides, difficulty in obtaining them and then limited ammunition. you get maybe 16 shots with it, barring looting the other armory lockers. I dont think there is any way to get more rubber slugs after you use them all, so it is a nice limiter to using the shotgun only for when the shit hits the fan. Personally I would much rather it be a bit more sci-fi like some sort of electrical particle acceleration gun to keep the syndicate= projectile, nanotrasen= energy dynamic but they are fine being as powerful as they are. If you do anything I would reduce the amount of brute damage and bleeding they do, so they REALLY are a suppression weapon and not a murder weapon.

[Ed Venture]

Or go in for the arrest which is what sec officers should be using them for. .

I was talking in the general sense. It goes without saying that is what a officer should do. But officers are not the only people who can get their hands on these weapons.

[SL the Pyro]

Just as a reply to all the stuff SL said:

I think that trying to take perspective into consideration when making the new doors is sort of a moot point, when the reality is that this "new perspective" project has walls with a totally nonexistent perspective, being, from topdown you can see both sides of the walls. Trying to make doors that totally match that standard would basically be impossible.

Along with that, even if the new doors were, in your opinion, "more correct" despite perfection being impossible, it seems that the truth, regardless of how correct said doors are, is that the older ones looked better. First of all, Supernorn originally sprited the doors to match up with the new walls, so is the padding theory totally correct? Why not change the walls to match up with the old doors instead, since the old doors were much more aesthetically pleasant?
Another good reason that the doors are not all that desirable is because, unlike the old doors, their color scheme doesn't totally match up with the walls. They're much darker and grittier, similar to the current doors. The shading isn't bubbly, and the colors aren't bright. It just doesn't match.

I hope that this feedback helps.

I've noted this, and thanks for the feedback.

Admittedly I wasn't able to ask Supernorn how he envisioned the walls during the time I was making the doors, so I had to use my best judgment. It honestly hadn't occurred to me that the walls might have been straight and that the isometric view made them appear slanted; if it had, I would've just made all the vertical doors slanted. I'll make it a point to ask Supernorn how the walls are supposed to work in the near future. As for the colour scheme of the doors, I wanted to match the old-old doors as closely as possible, but if that's not preferable then making them closer to the old-new style shouldn't be hard.

I did consider just making new walls to go with the doors, but I'm really not okay with that idea since the current walls/glass are all Supernorn's, and making entirely new stuff would mean completely excising all of his hard work. Funny perspectives aside, it was the last bit of spritework he did for the game and it's good spritework, so I'd really like to use it. It's just that maybe my first attempt at it didn't quite cut the mustard.

Ultimately the advertising has been done, so I'd like to wait until Cogmap 2 goes live so the players can see the new doors/walls for themselves, since experience from still images and experience from gameplay tends to be a little different. If the complaints persist after that, though, then I'll remake them with a better of idea of how they're meant to fit.

[APARTHEID]

The armory is a place where I arm up the last surviving anyone that can stand up to whatever threat just plastered or meat-pasted the station over the last half-hour. That is, well, if it hasn't been summarily emptied out, then it's the last place where anyone would think to come looking for you!

[Erik]

wall of text

If the complaints persist after that, though, then I'll remake them with a better of idea of how they're meant to fit.

Why where the doors changed in the first place? What was wrong with the old ones?

[quiltyquilty]

It's because he thought that the weird ledge-thing at the bottom of the walls were intended to be padding, and thus the actual wall itself would end much higher up. The new doors match that interpretation, but it's likely that Supernorn didn't intend the ledge to be padding.

[Sundance]

Feedback for Security HQ:
Before I go on, I just gotta say I wayyy prefer the design of this security over current sec. Current sec is a bit patchworky, it's too elongated and alot of stuff has been moved about like detective's office and the single cell, and it shows. This security's design is fairly sane, and has addressed alot of issues that I currently have. Still, you're looking for good feedback, then hopefully the following makes sense.

Let's start with the brig

Firstly there's a disposal unit in the brig. Possibly an oversight, but that kinda defeats the purpose of the brig a bit
The way the windows are positioned means that prisoners cant escape unless A) There's another prisoner in which they can work together/against their will to table-flip or B) they have a wrench. I don't have any issue with this per say, but some might. Perhaps a hilarious solution to this is to put a prison monkey in the brig, that spawns with a knife in hand.
To the left there seems to be a parole room, which is brilliant. One thing i'm not sure about is the red disposal chute in the parole room. Does this lead back into brig or does it eject them outside? If it's the latter, then I suggest it be color coded/labelled/look differently than a brig chute.
Another thing I noticed is how security is more self stocked, medically. Some may argue that this detracts from medical, i'd argue that medbay needs more ailments, while the current vital meds should remain in security, but in short supply.

Next is HQ proper:

I really like the security dorm, it's nice change from the current set-up. I'd replace the TV in the dorm with another bed (moving the tv to where the current clothing locker is), remove the two beds on the bottom and replace them with 3 clothing lockers. There's currently only one locker and security are very fashion aware.
The security hangar seems a bit small. Anytime security have gone policing out in space, it's often in pairs so one sec pod just seems a bit lacking.
4 single cells? Single cells are welcome, but it seems a bit overkill. Those single cells will never be completely full aswell as the genpop brig. I'd recommend cutting it down to 2-3 single cells, and extending the security hangar and adding in another pod.

Finally is the armory:

3 n2o canisters! That's like, 3 times as many!
What is the purpose of the room west of the armory that it needs to be protected by the armory itself? The centcom computer? It seems following logic that the gas connectors could be used to flood the genpop with n2o, which is neat, but what else? I feel like this room needs more purpose if it's going to be cordoned off like that.
As far as the guns go, phasers are going to be left there, as will the riot launchers. They simply pale in comparison to the damage and usefulness as the riot shotguns. The heavy armor is interesting, is it similar to how the armor used to be? I can't say.
As far as the IR beams go, what use are they? Will they alert security and/or the AI? What use is that if there's no security? Free lunch, it seems. I like the idea of having guardbuddies that activate if there's intruders, they could be on standby in the above parole room. These mightn't be your run of the mill-guardbuddies (sec buddies?) maybe a weaker PR form and do not have a patrol station function. They could however, have a patrol function for security/bridge, which is only available via a console inside the armory (another use for the room west of the armory?) Also a lockdown function is needed. Essentially, making the armory available to all, but it should be no cakewalk to infiltrate, the opposite preferably.
And finally as far as the HoS goes, he should be able to waltz in there and the IR beams do not set off an alarm for him. He could also fiddle with the secbuddies in other ways.

Hope this helps!

[Cogwerks]

Disposal chute in the brig has a biofilter, if you try to flush a person through it, they pop right back out inside the brig. And yes, very useful feedback!

[Silvercloud29]

Phasers are going to be left there, as will the riot launchers. They simply pale in comparison to the damage and usefulness as the riot shotguns.

I'd like to argue about this. I think phasers are good to have in the armory. here's why... Phasers may not be the best for killing a player, but they are great for handling lethal mobs. Like Killer Tomatoes, martians. etc. You wouldn't want to waste shotgun shells on those, and also the fact the shotgun DOESN'T RECHARGE ITS AMMO is another good point of keeping a phaser on you. Once you run out of shotgun shells, the shotgun is only useful for beating people with it like it was a club.

Riot Launchers: I know people don't like these things, or don't tend on grabbing them. I find them pretty useful, and they have saved my ass multiple times. And that's just talking about the smoke shells.
The Smoke shells are great for crowd dispersal or screwing up someone. If they don't have internals, or any that are on, they will start hacking up a lung, slowing them down.
Even if someone has internals on, if you are within the smoke grenades range, you cannot see outside of it. Which makes it a great tool to disorientate and confuse attackers,
Third. Shooting a 40mm Shell into a person does A LOT of brute damage.

[Ed Venture]

Also the riot launcher makes for a great escape. Like Sliver said if you hit someone with the shell it does and lot of brute damage, so you deal damage as you fee.

[Ed Venture]

Also the riot launcher makes for a great escape. Like Sliver said if you hit someone with the shell it does and lot of brute damage, so you deal damage as you FLEE.

Fuck.

[Cogwerks]

Riot launcher is meant to make any problem into more of a mess. I find them hilarious, and yeah, they can be good for escapes too.

[Cogwerks]

Wire made a 5mb gifv of Cogmap2's design progression over the last year and a half. Check it out!

http://gfycat.com/FlakyBadKangaroo

[Ed Venture]

Wire made a 5mb gifv of Cogmap2's design progression over the last year and a half. Check it out!

http://gfycat.com/FlakyBadKangaroo

[Gannets]

http://gfycat.com/FlakyBadKangaroo

Yessss. That's neat as heck.