It may seem like things are slow going, but I assure you that we’re being more productive than ever behind the scenes here at Data Realms HQ. Arne has been cranking out an incredible amount of new art assets for pretty much every aspect of the game.

I’m talking several new craft (with complete gib sets), humanoid actors, entire sets of bunker modules, etc… It’ll take a while to get it all implemented (read: not by next build), but that won’t stop us from teasing you in the mean time! 😉

So we thought we’d push a build out this last weekend, but then we came up with this and that to add, and then all of a sudden there’s a serious need to overhaul the core physics code! In essence we’re going to try to squash some of the old core physics engine problems like sinking objects and inconsistently mushy terrain.

So, along with a whole lot of other major improvements (e.g. scenes are very easy to make now, no more silly contours), we’ll take some more time to really get into overhauling the physics integrator and collision response code.

In the mean time, here’s a little surrealistic teaser:

UPDATE:
For the curious, this describes one of the things we’re actually doing to the physics engine:
http://www.gaffer.org/game-physics/fix-your-timestep/
It, combined with a lot more bugfixing and tweaking in collision response code will help prevent MovableObject-Terrain sinking, as well as MO-MO interpenetration and consequent explosions. We’re also considering swapping out the integrator, but not sure yet if it’s something we can retrofit into the current way the engine works.

Things are getting better in terms of proper control over your team:

Before, when you pressed either of the actor switch buttons, brain control changed immediately. Now, when you press and hold either, you get all that stuff you see here overlaid on top of your current and adjacent team members.

When in this mode, you can use the directional keys/pad/stick to change your currently selected AI mode before the actual control switch happens. Only when you let go of the actor switch button you pressed earlier, does the actual switch happen.

This way you can still very quickly cycle through your guys (by tapping the switch buttons) – or conveniently change their AI modes as you go through them, by briefly holding the switch button and hitting a direction corresponding to the new AI mode you want.

Also, all your team members are now sorted by their horizontal position on the map, so it’s more intuitive to switch between them. When you hit the right switch actor button, you’ll get the guy to your right, and vice versa.

We’ll, we’re back to programming after the post-conference fatigue. Here’s the photos from last week. Good times.

Anyway, work is well underway on the next test build which will focus on the different selectable AI modes for both the humanoid and flying actors.

Before switching away from the currently controlled one, you get to choose what behavior it will have when it is on its own. Some example modes are sentry, patrol, brain hunt, and gold dig for the humanoids.

If we can make the interface intuitive enough, it should be fun to play too!

Spending the week in San Fransisco at the GDC, making friends with fellow game developers and and absorbing the wisdom. More photos to follow!

Over the weekend we had some friends over to really try the four-player game. We learned a lot and the to-do list grew accordingly. Here are some pictures:

Note the crazy cyberpunk nightmare on the right… the Tablet PC is what CC was running on, but it only has two USB ports, and we had no standalone USB hub, so we had to use the built-in one in that bottom monitor, along with a PS2 PC adapter (which allow two Dual Shocks to connect through a single USB port). This way we managed to get two wired Xbox 360 controllers, and two PS2 Dual Shock controllers going on the same laptop.

The great news related to this is that Microsoft has finally released their new wireless PC adapter for its regular wireless controllers that come with the Xbox 360!

With this, you just have to plug it into a single USB port on any windows machine, and suddenly you can connect up to four wireless Xbox 360 controllers, for the perfect Cortex Command multiplayer setup! I wish we had one this weekend; it would have made half of that mess to the right disappear. Alas, our orders from Amazon didn’t arrive in time.

Finally, here are a couple of short videos from the weekend. The first is from our local test at Data Realms HQ, and the other is from our tester Nate Sabanski and his friends’ LAN party up in Canada. Good times!

Yep, fixed some of the reported problems with build 12:

• Mouse + Keyb and Classic keyboard conflict resolved, no longer maps across anymore
• D-Pad control scheme now controls the buy menu properly
• Mouse control fixed so that the direction you’re facing and your movement can be different while in the air, without the two inputs fighting
• Grasslands map can now be played without insta-win. It only has one brain in the map, so the other team’s brain gets placed automatically (buried in the ground)
• Fixed so that the game doesn’t end if a team runs out of money
• Mouse wheel can now change inventory items!
• Jetpacks’ bursts are now more consistent, better control
• Some other small stuff

Enjoy!

UPDATE:
If you downloaded this before this message appeared here, then re-download. There’s a major bug in it that has been fixed. Causes the game to exit when setting up controllers 🙁 Sorry, but fixed now! Everyone else can ignore this message.

UPDATE 2:
Whoops. The insta win problem was only partially fixed… if you’re on the red team with only one player, it still happens with this build. It’s fixed for sure for the next build though. For now, just play grass duel, it’s the same map with a few more bunkers.

… or Bummer, if you had to program and test it all :p

There are many very significant improvements to this version:

• 1-4 player split screen, co-op against the CPU, or versus each other on two teams!
• Multiple players on the same team can share the single brain and order what they want, when they want.
  

• Easily configure any damn controller under the sky to work beautifully, including…



• … Mouse + Keyboard support!
• Sharp aiming support for all control schemes; doesn’t go through walls
• AI spotting, aiming, and firing logic is vastly improved… your AI guys are now useful guards!
• Early implementation of ballistic shields. Wielding logic needs a lot more polish though.
• Select which scene you want to play in! (yes, really)
• After ordering new equipment, select where it should be delivered on the terrain.
• No need to wait for the last order to arrive, queue up as many as you want and can afford, and order them to land wherever your strategy needs them!
• Pause a game and bring up the main menu with [Esc], then resume the same game after changing controls and options!
• Several more improvements and bug fixes which I can’t remember right now…

You can safely install this version over the last (11), but I can’t guarantee that all your user mods will still work. If you’re concerned, we recommend you install into a separate directory, and move one mod over at a time.

Enjoy blasting with and against up to three of your friends!

Major progress this week. Now multiple players (1-4) can be on the same team, cooperating against another AI or player-controlled team. You and your teammates can buy stuff and have it delivered wherever you want on the map, and you can order as many times as you want without having to wait for the deliveries to get there – they just queue up!

Imagine playing coop with three of your buddies: one on the mouse+keyb, one on the other side of the keyboard, and the two remaining on USB gamepads (not necessarily xbox 360 controllers)… trying to protect your collective brain from the onslaught of a now very deadly AI who can actually aim straight!

One of you guys may be on the offense, one tending to the defense control, one who is responsible for the gold collection operation, and the fourth as a floater who keeps everyone supplied with new guys and guns.

It’s all in the upcoming build, folks… There’s some tedious menu and other user interface work to be done, but almost everything else under the hood is good to go for a release sometime next week!

Prom found this; it’s like straight out of Cortex Command!
Watch until about a minute into it… hilarity ensues:

“AUUUGURGHhh!!” Awesome.

In other news, the next build will be a whopper with much deadlier AI. No more of that “Why isn’t he firing!?” business. After debugging the original AI code, I’m amazed that they managed to hit or even detect anything. Also: shields, awesome mouse control with analog sharp aiming that won’t go though walls, complete control device config, etc etc.