It took eight builds since Lua was first introduced, but there are now primitive draw functions that allow modders to, well, draw stuff. Things like simple boxes, circles, and lines can be drawn using Lua, instead of having to make a bunch of MOSRotating or MOSParticle objects with the sprites of what the modder wants displayed.

FrameMan:DrawCirclePrimitive(Vector pos, int radius, int color)
FrameMan:DrawCircleFillPrimitive(Vector pos, int radius, int color)
FrameMan:DrawLinePrimitive(Vector start, Vector end, int color)
FrameMan:DrawBoxPrimitive(Vector start, Vector end, int color)
FrameMan:DrawBoxFillPrimitive(Vector start, Vector end, int color)

On the content balancing end of things, we’re aiming on giving each faction there own strengths and weaknesses in terms of durability and weapons, along with a differing play-style for each faction.

Feedback thread and more information here.

FrameMan:DrawCirclePrimitive(Vector pos, int radius, int color)

FrameMan:DrawCircleFillPrimitive(Vector pos, int radius, int color)

FrameMan:DrawLinePrimitive(Vector start, Vector end, int color)

FrameMan:DrawBoxPrimitive(Vector start, Vector end, int color)

FrameMan:DrawBoxFillPrimitive(Vector start, Vector end, int colorssda

An issue often brought up about CC’s difficulty is the AI, specifically, how it can direct every actor at once, while the player is limited to controlling one actor at a time.

To get players on more level ground, we’ve been working on a Squad function activated in the Pie Menu. Once you press it, the actor you’re currently controlling becomes the ‘leader,’ and you can grab allied units within a specified distance around you that will follow the leader.

When the squad is disbanded, either manually by pressing the pie menu button again or having the leader die, the followers will copy the leader’s AI mode at death, so you can direct large number of units to positions without having to set them on Go To one at a time.

Update: Some gifs to show that only weapons of the same “type” will be fired. That means rocket launchers will fire with rocket launchers, bullet sprayers with bullet sprayers, and so on.

CaveCricket48 here. Progress on Cortex Command is still rolling despite the unintentional lack of information, and with a new build around the corner, just hold on a little longer!

On my end of things, I’ve been working towards getting CC’s content balanced, in terms of gold cost, actor durability, and weapon damage. Keep in mind that this is the first pass-over, and by no means close to the final phase.

In the current and older builds, there were some serious issues with the cost of units, weapons, and crafts, where a cannon could cost more than a dropship. When a mob of enemies were coming your way, it was more economical and time efficient to throw a craft at them than to buy a soldier and a gun, and the soldier had a much lower chance of actually getting the job done. Now, however, pricing of items for the most part follows the pattern below:

_________________________

Weapons              0 – 150

Actors                 100 – 250

Crafts                  200 – 200+

_________________________

Pretty self-explanatory. The majority of weapons are cheaper than the majority of actors, and the majority of actors are cheaper than the majority of craft.

The pricing of actors is now more dependent on their durability and less arbitrary, taking into account GibWoundLimit and bleeding to come up with their gold cost, and then tweaking the value based on mobility and armor.

Damage for weapons has also been looked at to differentiate SMGs from assault rifles, balancing shotguns appropriately, and making sure everything has a sharplength that makes sense.

Previously, “SMG” and “assault rifle” weapons were essentially the same – one particle of damage per shot at a rapid rate of fire. Now, however, assault rifles fire two damage particles on their tracer round, allowing them to hit harder per shots fired compared to SMGs. The inconsistency also keeps them from stepping on the sniper weapon types too much, since sniper rifles still maintain a consistent number of particles per shot.

Shotgun fall-off has been changed to be less like snowflakes when they reach a certain distance, but still keep them powerful at close ranges. Now instead of pellets slowing down, they have a script where roughly 50% or 70% (depending on the faction) of the particles will randomly have their sharpness values set to 0 after a minimum period of time. This allows them to still injure enemies at long range without hitting with their full power, while still keeping them strong up close.

The sharplength of weapons now looks like:

_________________________

Handgun                100 – 200

Shotgun/SMG         150 – 250

AR                        200 – 300

Rifle                      250 – 350

Sniper                   300 – 400+

_________________________

With “Rifle” being a rifle similar to a DMR, being useful for distances in between an assault rifle and a sniper rifle.

The next series of balancing passes will be to tweak things based on your feedback once the build is released, and then working to adjust actors’ GibImpulseLimit and ImpulseDamageThreshold to allow kinetic projectiles to deal health damage, instead of either exploding the actor or just shoving them. And, of course, modifying and adding new weapons to take advantage of the new damage method.