[UPDATE: The instructional video will come after some fundamental things are changed in the metagame, like the tiresome scanning mechanic etc]
I am going to add a video and talk about the now playable metagame/campaign here soon, but I just wanted everyone who previously bought the game to not have to wait and be able to download the newest version right away:
http://licensing.datarealms.com/licensing/
Use your email and old license key as password (all UPPERCASE) to get access to Windows, Mac, and Linux variants of Build 25, without any kind of DRM!
You can now play anywhere, anyhow without having to worry about registering license keys etc. If you forgot your old license key, just use the password reset feature on that page.
We worked hard on this one; I hope you enjoy the campaign mode with your friends, even in its current rough state!
Hey gang, today I want to direct your attention to this very interesting project that I am personally excited about and feel has a lot of potential:
As you can see, it’s a very impressive voxel, or ‘atom’-based 3D engine running smoothly on regular medium-spec hardware. The advantages and gameplay possibilities enabled by simulating the interior volume of the game world’s terrain and objects (as opposed to only the surfaces like in most games) should be clear to any fan of Cortex Command, Minecraft or Terraria – games entirely built around freely digging into and building with a world’s atomic matter of different materials.
As challenging as it has been for me to build a custom 2D physics engine to handle destructible atomic terrain in Cortex Command, I can appreciate the very promising progress that Branislav Síleš, sole author of the Atomontage Engine, has made on tackling the third dimension at such high (and variable) resolution! Check out this video where he shows off how the volumetric matter can be removed to expose hidden structures beneath:
Amazing stuff! This is still an early prototype with only a solo man working on it, but I would love to see this technology mature to a point where we could one day use it to develop a future sequel of Cortex Command (3D? ;)).. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to build an underground bunker in one of those gorgeous, procedural hills and defend it against enemy forces landing from orbit?!
If you’re feelin’ me, then I urge you to consider donating and supporting Branislav’s project here! It will improve the chances of him not having to take on outside investment in exchange for control/ownership of his project – something that probably would hurt the chances of a CC 3D happening. In other words: let’s help him stay indie!
For the next version, we have implemented a subtle yet very powerful feature that I hope the modding community will have a lot of fun with. Extra, custom Pie-Menu options can now be defined for any Actor or HeldDevice, so that a Lua script is run each time that option is activated by the player in-game.
The custom options will show up only when an Actor of a Preset with them defined is selected, or he’s holding a device that itself has extra options defined. The options’ icons can also be of custom size and design. As an example, can you figure out what this modded Actor’s extra Pie-Menu option will do??: (it’s not what you see to the right)
In MyMod.rte/Robots/Robots.ini:
AddActor = AHuman
CopyOf = Robot 1
PresetName = Suicidal Robot
AddPieSlice = Slice
Description = Detonate Limb
Direction = 2
Icon = Icon
CopyOf = MyCoolIcon
ScriptPath = MyMod.rte/Scripts/Dismember.lua
FunctionName = Dismember
in MyMod.rte/Scripts/Dismember.lua:
function Dismember(actor)
humanoid = ToAHuman(actor);
if humanoid then
if humanoid.EquippedItem then
humanoid:ReloadFirearm();
elseif humanoid.FGLeg then
humanoid.FGLeg:GibThis();
elseif humanoid.BGLeg then
humanoid.BGLeg:GibThis();
elseif humanoid.FGArm then
humanoid.FGArm:GibThis();
elseif humanoid.BGArm then
humanoid.BGArm:GibThis();
else
humanoid.Head:GibThis();
end
end
end
This new modding feature effectively connects the entire Lua scripting interface and all its modding opportunities to the real-time gameplay presented to the player. Custom firing modes of weapons, explosive self-destruction of Actors, mission-specific commands.. you name it; pretty much anything is possible!
Two of the guys on the official Data Realms content production team, Chris “Capn-Bubs” Mansell and Elliot “TheLastBanana” Colp, have made a cool Unity game together. This is their own creation separate from Data Realms, but it’s pretty neat with excellent effects and animation, so I recommend you check it out and vote for it on Kongregate!
You can also follow their development on their own development blog. My hat’s off to these guys who once again show that they not only have great talent, but they put it to use by actually making something of their own!
Hey all, here’s a rundown of what’s new in the new Test Build 24 of Cortex Command, which was launched in the Humble Indie Bundle:
So, what happened to the Metagame/Campaign mode we’ve been previewing in previous posts? Well, most of the effort since the last build went into getting this up and running.. however, as we worked on it, it became clear that many changes (like support for four teams, etc) were necessary to the engine to accommodate the types of battles that would happen during a Campaign.
Then, as the deadline for the Humble Bundle loomed, I realized that all these changes to the engine had fundamentally broken the previous Skirmish mode and its menus for setting up games. It quickly became clear that we had to abandon the hopes of finishing a first playable revision of the Metagame in order to rebuild and have ANY kind of playable modes working in time for the Bundle timeframe. That’s why this build’s Campaign button is disabled; we couldn’t ship it in a half-baked and confusing state to all the new people (now ~200k and counting!) who would be exposed to Cortex Command for the first time through the Bundle.
The good news is that while the work on the Metagame’s menus and mechanics aren’t visible in this build, it is quite far progressed already, and we are excited to get the last remaining phase of the turn-based mechanic running so the whole thing can actually be played, round after round! We intend to have a first revision of the Metagame up and playable (albeit still rough and unfinished) in the next build.
Last note: for everyone who has bought the game directly from us prior to the Bundle, check the previous post below for instructions on how to get Build 24. We are planning some very interesting things in terms of updates and DRM (or lack thereof) in future builds 🙂 Rest assured that you won’t regret having bought a license before these changes…
UPDATE: For those who already bought the game before and are looking for the newest update, check the forums..
Hey folks, just wanted to let you know that Arne has made a thread with a bunch of new Cortex Command art works-in-progress! It’s a cool place to check out the process HERE!
So after six months of development, it’s about time we pull the covers off the next big project Data Realms is working on! Before I say anything else, let me assure you all that Cortex Command is still alive and well. It’s what I personally focus my development time on until it is considered “done”.
For a couple of years now, I have been dreaming about making something out of these incredibly inspiring sketches that Arne made for his Metafight redesign page. The new project wouldn’t be set in the Metafight world (for licensing reasons, etc), but many of the game mechanics outlined in that sketch just looked too fun to not make a game out of!
A vehicular exploration/combat game where you can jump in and out of your ride, then run it into the ground until you find another one to replace it.. now that’s what the Cave Vehicle Engine is going to support! When on foot, you will have a little jetpack with which you can skim down slopes and do cool jumping and grappling tricks to get away from danger.
While Cortex Command and its Retro Terrain Engine was all about the dynamically destructible pixel terrain, the Cave Vehicle Engine is going to be about the dynamically deformable/destructible movable objects (as opposed to the mostly static terrain). The graphics and physics are now all polygon-based and fully hardware accelerated.
The person who has been working full-time on getting the CVE and its custom physics system going, is the very talented Miroslav Adamus, a Slovakian hero who is a much better (and faster!) programmer than myself. Among other things, he has so far managed to implement a powerful particle system, soft-body dynamics with volume (area) preservation, procedural fracturing of objects, and run-time generation of physical objects based on transparency data in their source images/textures. We are applying the lessons learnt while making CC, so this new technology should reach new heights of power and modability!
Oh, by the way, in addition to much other rambling, the maestro musician DannyB and I talk about the project about 25 minutes into this podcast by the 1UP Oddcast crew: PODCAST DOWNLOAD
In the spirit of transparent indie development, here is a very early test build of the engine in action! Have fun smashing objects around and driving the test vehicle. 100% of the art in here is placeholder test stuff, so don’t judge how it looks, only what it can do. In fact, everything (including the physics) is in early test stages. There’s definitely weirdness in many situations, but we think it’s already quite fun to noodle around with! See the included readme for the controls, and ENJOY!
Here’s a little preview of what one of the phases of the turn-based metagame will look like.
Specifically, this is the income-counting phase where all the revenue from each team’s owned mining bases gets tallied and added to their gold accounts in the TradeStar. When the lines actually point to the TradeStar, it indicates the money that team had left over “in the bank” since last turn.
In designing these UI animations, the challenge for us is to always show in a graphically clear and appealing way what’s going on with the flow of money in the metagame.. I hope this draft approaches that goal!
I know you are eager to try this thing out; the trouble with building a turn-based game system is that none of it is really playable until all the components have at least a baseline of functionality implemented. If any one phase of a game round doesn’t work yet, you can’t really play the game at all.
The good news is that we’re currently making good progress and are completely focused on closing that gameplay loop, at least in a basic fashion. As soon as we do, the long-awaited new build will be out for you to try and give us feedback on!
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