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Metagame Mockup »


Metagame Menu Makin’
Posted by Data in Cortex Command - February 3rd, 2010

MetaGUI EditorHello everyone, and belated happy new decade!

To the right we’re cranking away at one of the several menus and dialogs needed for the Metagame (aka “Campaign”) mode. In the coming days and weeks, I hope to throw up some more mockups, teasers, and info about this aspect of the project which will tie the whole Cortex Command experience together. In short: it’s a turn-based game which sits on top of the tactical missions (hence the “meta” – i.e. a game about the game) and puts them in a larger context. What happens in the tactical on-surface battles directly affect the orbital metagame, and vice versa.

We have cut away a lot of the feature creep and finally nailed down a feasible scope for this Campaign mode, and I think what we’ve ended up with is going be very fun to play. As always, we’re making it all data-driven, so you crafty guys can make and mod its content for a customized experience.

Having achieved a fairly clear and realistic picture of exactly how it’s all going to work is pretty exciting for us, so I expect productivity on this to really pick up! Stay tuned..

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62 Responses to “Metagame Menu Makin’”

  1. FinDude - # February 3rd, 2010 at 5:07 am

    That looks pretty cool.
    Any chances of this metagame being multiplayer in any way?

  2. Kzerog - # February 3rd, 2010 at 5:26 am

    HOLYSHITSECONDAWESOMEUPDATELICIOUS!

  3. Hyperkultra - # February 3rd, 2010 at 6:02 am

    Awesome. Glad to hear some progress on the game, especially since this is pretty much new stuff for us.

  4. Lizard - # February 3rd, 2010 at 6:05 am

    Does this mean we can make our own campaign?

  5. Natti - # February 3rd, 2010 at 6:17 am

    IT’S DATA!!!

    HE’S ALIVE!!!

    HE’S MAKING CORTEX COMMAND STUFF!!!

    HOLY SHIT!!!

    I think i just passed out for a couple of minutes.

  6. Tomaster - # February 3rd, 2010 at 6:22 am

    Thanks for the update Data. It’s good to know that you’re still alive and working on CC.

  7. Petethegoat - # February 3rd, 2010 at 6:29 am

    In the coming days and weeks, I hope to throw up some more mockups, teasers, and info about this aspect of the project which will tie the whole Cortex Command experience together.

    Translation:
    In the coming months and years, I hope to brutally rape you in the ass, which will tie the whole Devlog experience together.

    …

    Honestly though, I’m very happy to see an update. The GUI editor looks nifty, will modders be able to get their hands on it?

  8. BioBen - # February 3rd, 2010 at 8:18 am

    A Devlog? Wow.
    Thank you.

  9. Duh102 - # February 3rd, 2010 at 8:24 am

    Whoo, news. Looks quite nice actually.

  10. numgun - # February 3rd, 2010 at 8:32 am

    4/24 sites… If I’m guessing right, I see that instead of a fixed campaign size, there is going to be the story line missions, and sidemission areas. The sites where you presumable gather resources or steal tech can be configured with the sites slider. The more sites to manage, the longer the game will be.

    Also I see that we can have 4 seperate teams/sides. Blue and yellow teams I guess? :O

    Sounds badass. Can’t wait to see how this will look in action.

  11. ZevN47 - # February 3rd, 2010 at 8:35 am

    Yay semi-tangible progress(the picture)! the second best kind. I don’t see a “Help” button to explain all the different features of that screen will there be one or will you just have hover over pop-up type descriptions or…

  12. FinDude - # February 3rd, 2010 at 8:37 am

    Procedural Enemy AI bunker generation go!

  13. Ameefmu - # February 3rd, 2010 at 8:46 am

    Ooh fantastic, another update. I’ve missed you :)

    I’m loving this metagame idea, it reminds me of Dawn of War slightly, which is fantastic as that’s a great game. Loving the new UI and layout. I hope the menu scrollbars get widened, the number of times I’ve gone to scroll and ended up sending CC to the background since I play in windowed mode…

    Aah I’m so happy there’s an update! This looks amazing and inspiring.

  14. Kzerog - # February 3rd, 2010 at 8:50 am

    Yeah it’s kinda like DoW but definately in a good way. If only DoW 2 wouldn’t have been such a ripoff of CoH.

  15. MaximDude - # February 3rd, 2010 at 9:02 am

    Oh my fucking god! Do my eyes deceive me or this really is an actual update?

    Why yes, it really is.
    About goddamn time!

    MOAR info on b24 plox.

  16. CaveCricket48 - # February 3rd, 2010 at 9:27 am

    HOLY SHIT! This is NOT Zero-G n-gaming!

    Looks cool so far, glad to see major progress going on.

  17. byp4ss - # February 3rd, 2010 at 9:30 am

    Is that absolute positioning I’m seeing? :O

  18. yay - # February 3rd, 2010 at 9:42 am

    OMFG!

  19. Duh102 - # February 3rd, 2010 at 10:36 am

    @Ameefmu It looks like the entire UI could be modified by you if you think the bars are too small (they already can actually, just more tedious).

  20. Krumbs - # February 3rd, 2010 at 11:24 am

    Good to gear something for once, it’s looking promising. What does that Andy guy actually do again? If it’s handling things like updates and such on the devlog then he’s doing a bad job.

  21. Lizard - # February 3rd, 2010 at 1:21 pm

    Lordy lordy lordy….

    Andy has to get them approoved by data b4 it’s posted here.

  22. Geti - # February 3rd, 2010 at 1:36 pm

    Setup is looking good. I hope this gui editor ends up built into the in-game editors, or in some sort of utilities folder.
    Very nice, good to see some progress.

  23. Phosphoer - # February 3rd, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    Holy crap! An update! I just checked the site feeling kind of hopeless and now I’m all aglow xD.

    I can’t wait for more information about this metagame thing ^^.

  24. whitty - # February 3rd, 2010 at 3:23 pm

    HOLY FUCK AN UPDATE ON DATAREALMS 2012 CAME EARLY GUYS

  25. Pyrokinesis1019 - # February 3rd, 2010 at 4:02 pm

    FUCK YES!!!!
    Last night I got the stomach flu and threw up a bunch,
    but this just made my day awesome. I think I might cry.
    :’D

  26. airburst - # February 3rd, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    SO AWESOME!
    Saw I had a new email, checked my inbox, and saw the glory that is this.

    Looks completely awesome! A great addition to a great game!

  27. Block - # February 3rd, 2010 at 7:10 pm

    Looks sweet!

    Any comment on the lack of updates? I don’t know about other fans but I feel rather let down and unsatisfied with it. I understand if you’re going through some stuff or working on the game or something but just let us know. Just disappearing for a long period of time isn’t nice :(

  28. Duh102 - # February 3rd, 2010 at 7:59 pm

    That’s what Data always does. Just look through the archives, we were lucky to get four posts a year.

  29. Bluedrake42 - # February 3rd, 2010 at 8:31 pm

    *facepunched*… WOAH BALLS!!!
    =D =D =D

    Btw where’s andy?

  30. NGAJOE - # February 3rd, 2010 at 11:11 pm

    Gaaah!

    What’s this update doing here?!

  31. FinDude - # February 4th, 2010 at 1:22 am

    Wait a second!

    …why did Data post at ~3 am his local time?

  32. Ch33n - # February 4th, 2010 at 4:07 am

    Wuuaaagh!

    Where’s Andy?

  33. Yay - # February 4th, 2010 at 5:07 am

    “Where’s Andy?” (2011)

    MOVIEmeter: Up 15% in popularity this week
    Writer (WGA): Dan
    Release Date: N/A
    Genre: Crime | Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Slightly Erotic
    Tagline: This Year (?)… Enter The Mind Of A Lazy Dude

    Plot: A Community Moderator goes missing, leaving he’s work neglated, Later the Hero Will Awesome (Duh102) finds out, riding in on Andys Spacestation on Will’s Cybererotic Pink Pony (Lizard) – They both finds Andy… Lazy.

    Plot Keywords: Pony Nudity | Full Frontal Male Nudity | Lazyness | Sloth | Full Rear Male Nudity | Homoerotic | Lazorz | Disemboweld Brain

    User Reviews: Uhh.. Wut?

  34. numgun - # February 4th, 2010 at 7:06 am

    Hahah, nice one YAY. xD

  35. Bluedrake42 - # February 4th, 2010 at 9:33 am

    oh wait… now we have to wait another 2 months… DAMMIT

  36. cipher - # February 4th, 2010 at 11:05 am

    Looking good. :D

    *fapfapfap*

  37. Lizard - # February 4th, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    THE DEVLOG: also with disturbing minors

  38. CAKEDAEMON - # February 4th, 2010 at 6:11 pm

    GOOD LORD!!!! We had a UPDATE!?!
    Looking Good, I cant wait for the next release…

  39. airburst - # February 4th, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    “In the coming days and weeks, I HOPE to throw up some more mockups, teasers, and info about this aspect of the project which will tie the whole Cortex Command experience together.”

    Looks like Data has some high hopes…
    we shall see…

  40. Duh102 - # February 4th, 2010 at 6:57 pm

    I’d be pleasantly surprised if we got another update in the coming month. Even more pleasantly surprised if we got a new beta and the server fixed up.

  41. Washcloth - # February 4th, 2010 at 7:15 pm

    Huzzah! My self excile has ended! Thank you for the update Data!

  42. Hyperkultra - # February 4th, 2010 at 8:29 pm

    @Duh
    We’d all be more than pleasantly surprised, WE’D BE CRAPPING OURSELVES WITH GLEEFULL SHOCK.

  43. Duh102 - # February 4th, 2010 at 11:09 pm

    Yeah, that would probably be the more realistic reaction.

  44. AttackOfFlamingPigs - # February 5th, 2010 at 8:11 am

    Hurray!

  45. CrazyMLC - # February 5th, 2010 at 10:13 pm

    Shit yeah.

  46. wiffles - # February 5th, 2010 at 10:55 pm

    Holee shit your not dead, that gave me momentary hope for the next 5 minutes! good luck on finishing B24, and give us more updates!

  47. gismo - # February 6th, 2010 at 1:42 am

    hope this shuts the spamming mouths of the new people for a while

  48. Lizard - # February 6th, 2010 at 4:20 am

    Oh believe me it won’t.

    People are going to say stuff like “THY LORD HASTH RETURNETH!” amongst other things.

  49. badog001 - # February 6th, 2010 at 12:13 pm

    In other news, the general public and the rest of the world are awaiting B24 and other updates with great anticipation. Some have even taken to the streets to pledge their eternal allegiance to the great Data, who has recently returned from the world of “Metagame-Menu-Ideas” with a large bundle of awesome.

  50. TB87670 - # February 6th, 2010 at 11:48 pm

    Good to hear some news, I was worried Cortex Command was going to be forgotten. Happy to see not only news but a meta-game screen, which means I’m in happy-shock right now.

  51. FinDude - # February 7th, 2010 at 4:48 am

    That’s not metagame, that’s a GUI editor.

  52. Yay - # February 7th, 2010 at 6:32 am

    THY LORD HASTH RETURNETH!

  53. Lizard - # February 7th, 2010 at 7:05 am

    Told ya.

  54. AttackOfFlamingPigs - # February 7th, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    That’s not a GUI editor that’s a birdman!

  55. Lizard - # February 7th, 2010 at 3:19 pm

    No it’s a GUI editor alright.

  56. LowestFormOfWit - # February 7th, 2010 at 10:02 pm

    I’m glad you’re looking to make as much of this as mod-friendly as possible.

    Specifically are you looking to make other hard-coded aspects of the game like the Pie-menu customizable?

    I know for one it would solve a lot of problems with gun and actor mods to have specific new Pie menu functions for things like Alt-fire modes, etc, and let some mods move off of keyboard keys (which exclude gamepad users).

  57. Mooseral - # February 7th, 2010 at 10:35 pm

    I think that most everything in this game is Data-driven.

  58. Duh102 - # February 7th, 2010 at 11:08 pm

    I c wut u did thar

    I remember a while ago Data saying that he was working to take as much hard coding out as possible, and the GUI already is moddable (not function, but everything else).

  59. airburst - # February 8th, 2010 at 4:27 pm

    A man runs up to Andy, and tells him that the people of the forums have no posts to read.
    In response, Andy says, “Let them read cake!”

    wait…

  60. Lizard - # February 9th, 2010 at 1:25 am

    Well andy has lotsa posts, but data has to approve them.

  61. Lizard - # February 13th, 2010 at 7:38 am

    I CLAIM THIS DEVLOG POST

    any objections?

  62. Lizard - # February 22nd, 2010 at 1:24 am

    FINE!

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