Posted by Data in Cortex Command - December 20th, 2006

Download Test Build 10!Yup, it’s here, and we are proud of it.

I can’t believe some of you guys waited all night for this though. At least you didn’t have to spend it writing algorithms and tracking down bugs! I hope the improvements live up to your expectations (although I have my doubts, considering the recent avalanche of comments… ;p )

Seriously though, your interest and support give us a lot of motivation and encouragement, which is very much appreciated. It definitely helped me stay the course tonight and get things done – and done right.

I’ll make a list of things added/changed later. Now time for sleep (5 AM)

UPDATE: Here’s an incomplete list:

  • New ship type; the Drop Ship. It uses its engines to stabilize itself in the air, and is good for precisely deploying multiple guys at once into an area. It is expensive though, so killing one of your enemy is a win.
  • AIs added for both the dropship and the old rocket. If they have anything in inventory, and you don’t control them directly, they will land and unload. If they have nothing in inventory, they will do their best to return to orbit so you can get your money back for them. We’ll add ways to control the AI behavior later.
  • The AI of the guys has been improved where they will try to user their backpacks to soften their falls. This is good for them, since…
  • Impact gibbing has been implemented. If something or someone is hit hard enough in a collision, it will get gibbed. Splat!
  • Gibbing of clones has been otherwise enhanced as well. You can now gib the gibs! Overkill is fun.
  • Passengers of ships will now exit in an orderly fashion, using alternating exits, and with a data driven delay between them. They will also not exit out of any hatch that is blocked by terrain (think rocket on its side). The position of the exits is now also defined in the ini files.
  • Audio playback has been improved; no more cutting out of sound effects, and effects off the screen are attenuated for distance.
  • Reloading mechanic has changed. Now devices will auto reload if you run out of ammo and hit fire again. You can also top off your magazines manually by holding down inventory and pressing up.
  • Several crash bugs related to gibbing and emitters have been fixed.
  • As always, lots of small improvements here and there.

Known issues and coming fixes:

  • Sound of the Drop ship engine is the same as the rocket and doesn’t turn off when the engine gets blown up. This will be fixed very shortly.
  • High speed impact gibbing causes extreme slowdown
  • The Drop Ship’s engines don’t collide with the terrain yet. They should.
  • Scroll bars still don’t work properly in the buying menu. This is only an issue if you are using mods. We’ll try to fix this soon as well.
  • Need to make/improve the interface for controlling where you want your delivery ships to land, or if you want to automatically get control switched to them when they arrive. Now they just automatically land above your brain bunker, although you can switch to manual control over them at any time.
  • Difficulty levels in single player seem to be on the very hard side, considering there’s three guys coming out of each ship now. We literally threw together the config of this in a few minutes, and it shows.
  • Skeletons are not ready for prime time yet, although the inital data for them is included… They need some damage effects treatement to behave as expected when shot. Think proper sound effects and pieces/shards of bone flying everywhere, while bullets pass through them like nothing.
  • Controls are still not configurable with the new joystick scheme, so only Wired Xbox 360 controllers and the keyboard work well..

We recommend you uninstall any previous version before installing this one. In the future you won’t need to do that though, just install over the last build. We’re also going to be providing a non-installer zip for you who fuss over such things. (Looking at you, Arsecast Host!)

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123 Responses to “Test Build 10! Told you not to wait…”

  1. Lieutenant Slappy Moose - # December 22nd, 2006 at 3:09 pm

    MAKESHIFTER: Yeah, my name is Lieutenant Slappy Moose. And yeah, I am insulting him.

    Shinkirou Densetsu: I wasn’t teaching all the newbs how to do everything, I never said I was, and I’m talking to the people that know what they are doing. I was just posting a way to get free stuff. If you don’t like it, tough beans.

  2. Shinkirou Densetsu - # December 22nd, 2006 at 11:48 pm

    Dear, Lieuranant Slappy Moose

    It would appear if the people you were instructing were not nooblets, they would already know how to change everything’s cost to free. Therefore there is a hole in your logic.

    AAh well.. I don’t care.. And I have to ask, how did you come up with your name? It’s very.. well it makes me paint cartooney pictures in my mind that make me laugh.

  3. Leiutenant Slappy Moose - # December 23rd, 2006 at 2:17 am

    Yes, but some people that could modify the files didn’t know why the AK47 couldnt be set to free, so I assumed they knew how to edit the files without screwing it up.

    And also, my name’s origins are not for you to know…

  4. anonymous - # December 23rd, 2006 at 4:54 am

    crikey people, no need to start a flame war, anyway he seems to be right as I tried it again and it works, I probably didn’t save it; and stop calling me a n00b!

    p.s. lieutenant slappy moose? *snigger*

  5. Shinkirou Densetsu - # December 23rd, 2006 at 10:30 am

    sorry.. it was 12 am and I didn’t get much sleep!

  6. Leiutenant Slappy Moose - # December 23rd, 2006 at 12:03 pm

    Lol, no worries. I don’t get offended ever, so call be a bastard all you want.

    Anonymous: Yes, my name is supposed to be funny, thank you. Also, i called you a newb once, then used newb again in a broad term.

  7. Shinkirou Densetsu - # December 23rd, 2006 at 1:08 pm

    *WAY off topic* newb/noob.. Dit that start of as a spelling error.. like pwned did?

    *On topic* I have LIVED off of the new version of CC!

  8. don885 - # December 23rd, 2006 at 1:55 pm

    on single player can u make a way to have a enemy get a base too.

    p.s. the dropship rules!
    p.s.s. when is a new update comin?

  9. Bunda the Great - # December 23rd, 2006 at 5:45 pm

    You did not just ask for a new update. Shame.

    OMG THIS IS TEH AWESOME! THANKS DATA!

  10. Metroid48 - # December 23rd, 2006 at 8:38 pm

    Uh, love the new ideas with it, but one problemo:

    It works completely, like mouse and sounds and all, with no graphics. o_o. The previous build worked fine, but this one is just a black box. I can move my invisible mouse in it and select the buttons that I know start the game, then I can play it, but it remains black the whole time.

    -Metroid48

  11. Leiutenant Slappy Moose - # December 23rd, 2006 at 8:42 pm

    Shinkirou: Actually, they are different. Newb is a newby, like a new guy. Noob is a retard that just plays games to be a dick.

  12. Shinkirou Densetsu - # December 23rd, 2006 at 10:07 pm

    never heard that one before…

  13. Zcool31 - # December 24th, 2006 at 12:20 pm

    Hello, There is somewhat of an issue whit the new dropship:
    I set its health to practically infinite, and then I used it to make big dropship shaped holes in the ground. I then noticed that only the body was clipping the ground, but not the engines. The body left this big wide tunnel like hole, but the engines left narrow discontinuous shafts, kind of like shooting an AK 47 into the ground.
    In other words, the body destroyed the ground it touched but the engines didnt. Only the particles from the engines touched the gound.
    Lol, I talk in circles. Anyway, plz make the engines on the dropship as solid as the legs on the rocket.

  14. Afroded - # December 24th, 2006 at 1:09 pm

    is the skelleton ready yet?

  15. I am Drunkman - # December 24th, 2006 at 1:14 pm

    It is almost done, you can unlock it and play as it….. But it still bleeds and dies if its head falls off….

  16. TheLastBanana - # December 24th, 2006 at 3:30 pm

    ZCOOL31: This is a known glitch.
    If you check the top of this page, it is under known bugs.
    The discontinuous shaft you saw was from the small particles emitted from the drop ship’s engine, as you said.

  17. Tiago - # December 24th, 2006 at 7:52 pm

    Data said:
    “Also, we’re going to add some way to control which ‘mode’ the AI units on your side go into when you switch away from them. Like.. ‘deliver’ or ’stay’ for the ships, and ’sentry’, ‘advance’ or ‘brainkill’ for the guys.”

    Its a good idea. Cause i used to drop my dropship (the rocket) at the entrance of my base (trying to avoid a rush attack in a brain vs brain).. Now when i do it the AI try to move up and the entrance is unlocked. 🙁

    Maybe you can do that pressing “K” (when the dropship is selected) to switch the AI mode (just like when we select the weapons when we are controlling the guys).

    Just a idea. Sorry for the bad english.

  18. Foogooman - # December 25th, 2006 at 12:14 am

    In the next build, the jet pack key should make it so the rocket will remain permanently under your control. So it won’t fly away when deselected.

  19. Axxel - # December 26th, 2006 at 5:43 am

    Hey, are you going to make some sort of cooperative mode (ie, 2 player, but against the CPU)? That’d be cool to see in the next build.

    Great game, keep up the good work!

  20. Axxel - # December 26th, 2006 at 5:46 am

    Oh yeah, you might also want to set a speed limit for the dropship/rocket. I got a dropship, took manual control of it, and basically went as fast I could with it. After a while I was going about three times around the playfield per second. The crash when I hit the other bunker was cool though 🙂

  21. Metroid48 - # December 26th, 2006 at 9:19 pm

    Hey, got it working. It was something with my graphic driver.

    Anyway, love the new build. Same thing that other people say, add an AI toggle. However, one other annoyance:

    Reloading. It’s much harder now. Previously, a quick tap of K and you reload. Now, you have to hold K and press up(W). Not very intuitive, I liked it better the previous way.

    Other than that, like the dropship, auto-landing ships is great, and overall this game is flying for the sky. Congrats!

  22. Tim - # January 1st, 2007 at 11:06 am

    Metroid48, that’s exactly the problem I’m having; how did you fix it?

  23. AnferTuto - # July 28th, 2007 at 3:35 pm

    Hola faretaste
    mekodinosad