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Posted by Data in Cortex Command - December 30th, 2016

Your wait is over: both for this fresh build of your old faithful game, and also for the next frames in the heat of the fiercest battle! Don’t wait to get a copy for yourself or a friend, since the massive 85% OFF sale will only last for a few more days

Here’s what’s fresh, thanks to Evgeniy “Weegee” Vigovskiy, Jesús “GranPC” Higueras Pica, and Chris “Montdidier” Kruger:

Performance

  • Cortex Command now pumps up to 2x more frames per second!!
  • Game activities no longer slow down when played for too long.

Gameplay

  • Added keyboards shortcuts for weapon switch, reload, drop and pickup actions (also works with gamepads).
  • Gib editor now rounds all offsets.
  • Deployments can spawn flipped for non-flipped actors.
  • It’s easier to find out how many gamepads were detected and who moves the cursor in UIs.
  • Limbless actors will inevitably and quickly die.
  • Reworked Test Activity to act as an ordinary GAScripted and execute Global Scripts (good for testing and debugging global scripts).

Content

  • Bunker breach can be used with randomized bunkers.
  • Added randomized fortresses for Bunker Breach.
  • Added new skirmish activity Siege, which uses Bunker Breach maps.
  • Nerfed heavy ronins a lot.
  • Added global script, which gives 3x more gold when digging.
  • Added infinite ammo global script.
  • Added invincible crafts global script.
  • Added instant and delayed delivery global scripts.

Bugfixes

  • Added range checks to functions, which take Team as parameter to avoid memory corruption.
  • When brain actor is deleted, MovableMan checks if it’s a brain and if it is, set’s this brain to 0 to avoid crashes.
  • Dead actors no longer roll and scream infinitely
  • Dead actors reduce their AngularVel.
  • Fixed crashes in allegro and luabind.
  • Vanilla activities now count used MOIDs on per-team basis.
  • Fixed the shield-related crash in Campaign.
  • Primitives are no longer drawn on top of game UI elements.
  • Fixed a bug, which caused a crash in buy menu.
  • Fixed crash caused by digging.

Lua binding improvements:

Scene:

  • function GetOptionalArea the same as GetArea, but does not render scene incompatible for Activity if specified area is missing

SceneMan:

  • function RestoreUnseen(const int posX, const int posY, const int team)
  • function RestoreUnseenBox(const int posX, const int posY, const int width, const int height, const int team);

FrameMan:

  • function DrawTextPrimitive(Vector start, std::string text, bool isSmall, int alignment) , alignment 0 = left, 1 = center, 2 = right
  • function DrawBitmapPrimitive(Vector start, Entity * pEntity, float rotAngle, int frame)
  • function CalculateTextHeight(std::string text, int maxWidth, bool isSmall)
  • function CalculateTextWidth(std::string text, bool isSmall)

GameActivity:

  • function int GetActiveCPUTeamCount()
  • function int GetActiveHumanTeamCount()

HDFirearm:

  • property FiredOnce, r/o , Whether at least one round has already been fired during the current activation. May be 0 because weapon might have activated but no actual rounds were fired yet.
  • property FiredFrame, r/o, Whether at least one round has already been fired during the current frame. Use this to check if weapon fired something.
  • property RoundsFired, r/o, How many rounds were fired during this frame.

GameActivity:

  • property BuyMenuEnabled, r/w, Whether buy menu is enabled for this activity

Actor:

  • property AimDistance , r/w
  • property SightDistance, r/w

AEMitter:

  • property BurstDamage, r/w
  • property EmitCountLimit, r/w
  • property EmitDamage, r/w

INI changes:

PEmitter:

  • Lightweight, non-rotating MOSParticle-based emitter

MovableObject:

  • DamageOnCollision 0,1 – When it’s != 0 actors takes health damage on collision with this MO, without penetration
  • IgnoreTerrain 0,1 – When it’s 1 MO ignores any terrain collisions and travels right through them

Settings.ini:

  • PreciseCollisions 0,1 – When off uses experimental simplified MO collision model which may improve performance up to 30%



Posted by Data in Cortex Command - December 28th, 2016

Once again, just as you thought we’d given up on Cortex Command, Evgeniy “Weegee” Vigovskiy, Jesús “GranPC” Higueras Pica, and Chris “Montdidier” Kruger bring you a juicy update for the holidays! This time it’s mostly focused around massive performance enhancements. With the new build coming out in a couple of days, you can have hordes of little guys going at it, without much slo-mo action kicking in:

So keep an an out for it dropping this weekend, right before the year ends!

Speaking of which, Cortex Command can be bought for LESS THAN THREE DOLLARS on Steam right now during the Winter Sale HERE. Only until the 2nd of January, though… so this is a good time to spread the carnage; buy a copy for a friend!



Posted by Data in Cortex Command - March 28th, 2015

Evgeniy “Weegee” Vigovskiy
Stefan “Abdul” Winberg
Ken “CaveCricket48” Vu Do &
Jesús “GranPC” Higueras Pica

bring you a MASSIVE update (on Steam right now, Humble shortly):


Try doing this before on Dummy Assault!

Major features:

  • THE MOID LIMIT IS GONE*!!! (*Not truly gone, but hardly reachable)
  • Randomized maps: create a map once, play it forever
  • Bunker prefabs: build your bunker of any size in no time
  • AI skill sliders: bored? We have ‘Unfair’ AI skill for ya.
  • Global scripts: add some pepper to any activity or control AI units in the campaign your way.
  • Mod manager: no more .rte renaming!
  • Constructor tool: AI brains seal themselves in tunnels to live long (and probably even prosper).
  • Visible inventory: guess no longer about how many nukes you have left in your pockets.
  • Scenes previews: you don’t have to remember all those scene names.

Content updates:

  • 36 randomized maps for the campaign.
  • Almost 200 bunker prefabs.
  • New Dummy weapon – Lancer.
  • Wounds, jetpacks, headshot damage multipliers, generic variables – all exposed to Lua.

Other improvements and fixes:

  • Deployments can be used instead of units to make your map compatible with any player-selected techs.
  • AI skill adjustments.
  • Resolution selection fixes.
  • HSplitScreen and VSplitScreen work just like before.
  • Secret endless campaign mode.
  • Tooltips on/off checkbox.
  • Steam can be manually disabled if any start-up problems arise.
  • Diggers create tunnels which way easier to walk through.
  • Factions balance tweaks.
  • Campaign strategic AI tweaks.
  • Campaign tactical tweaks.
  • You can safely set health more that 100, yet it’s still not recommended.
  • Foreign items can be removed from the buy menu.
  • Press CTRL+W to dump the entire world to .BMP file.
  • Author can specify default gold, fog of war and other options for your activity and prevent player from changing them.
  • Some activities may load scenes while discarding any pre-placed actors.
  • Deployments now work correctly in scenario/skirmish modes. No more zombie spawns!
  • AI actors in sentry mode no longer ignore enemies after reloading.
  • The jet-pack mass indicator use jet-pack strength instead of hard-coded values.
  • Small objects are less likely to mysteriously gib after a collision. (MOs now automatically gib when AngularVel > 2000/(MaxRadius+1) instead of 100).
  • Meta Game: Crafts with MaxPassengers = 0 as are not used as drop crafts by the AI

New ini-properties:

  • “AutoStabilize” (1 or 0) for ACDropShips. Enable/disable hard coded use of the upper thrusters, see the Dummy Drop Ship for a lua stabilization script.
  • “ScuttleIfFlippedTime” for Dropships and Rockets. Craft gib if upside-down more than this value in ms. 4000ms by default, disable with -1.
  • “LoudnessOnGib” [0..1] for MOSRotatings
  • “LoudnessOnEmit” [0..1] for AEmitters
  • and many more here

Lua changes:

  • Exposed MinThrowVel and MaxThrowVel for ThrownDevice
  • and many more here

Also, sign up for the Pioneer Program and be part of what’s next from Data Realms, already 5+ years in the making:
Planetoid Pioneers, BABY



Posted by Data in Cortex Command - June 15th, 2014

Kruger Heavy IndustriesSorry for the delay, dear mac folks – the Build 30 update of CC finally dropped after yet another round of heroic efforts by our porting guru Chris Kruger (pictured at left)! It’s on Steam with full workshop integration, and also on our licensing site: http://licensing.datarealms.com. The humble download will also be updated first thing on Monday!



Posted by Data in Cortex Command - April 17th, 2014

Build 30 is here!



Posted by CaveCricket48 in Cortex Command - February 16th, 2014

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



Posted by CaveCricket48 in Cortex Command - February 13th, 2014

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.

Squad Pie Menu Command

Group Go To

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.



Posted by Data in Cortex Command - February 11th, 2014

Hi! My name is Jake ‘The Heartsman’ Harold, I’ve recently joined the Data Realms dev team, and I’m here to tell you about the first job I did: Steam Trading Cards!

cc_announce

6 cards to collect, 6 badges, 10 emoticons and a bunch of Steam profile backgrounds, meaning you can now show off just how much you love Cortex Command to all your friends (and probably enemies). This is the start of a lot more Steam integration for our games; there’s a lot of exciting stuff ahead of us!



Posted by Data in Cortex Command - February 10th, 2014

I have some good news for veteran players of Cortex Command: the infamous Scene Gib Bug has finally been thoroughly eradicated! For those not in the know, it was a very hard-to-reproduce critical issue where your actors (including your brain!) would sometimes inexplicably explode in a shower of blood as they walked across the wrapping ‘seam’ of scene. A poor game experience, to say the least.

So, I am glad to report that my long suspicion was finally confirmed that the bug originated in the decade-old locomotion physics algorithms. Long story short, they were not fully taking into account the wrapping of some spatial delta calculation between absolute coordinates in the scene. This would only be relevant when the character headed across that otherwise seamless-looking wrap line, with his limbs on the ‘other side’, pulling his body forward on the first side, causing huge impulse forces due to the misinterpreted mathematical distance.

After having unsuccessfully tried to track it down for a very long time now (it was tough to even reproduce reliably – often the nature of physics simulations), I can with relief and pride say that it has been verified to be a resolved matter. It took the renewed efforts and fresh eyes of two very dedicated and talented members of the official Cortex Command team here at Data Realms, Weegee and Abdul, to both produce the special tools necessary to find, and then to fix, the issue once its general whereabouts were nailed down.

So, a BIG HUZZAH to them! Here’s a test scene/script that has been running for many hours, sending actors crawling across that former line of random death:

seamgibtest



Posted by CaveCricket48 in Cortex Command - February 7th, 2014

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+

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.


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