I know some of you are really getting anxious about a new build; here’s the situation:

Up till now the test builds have been a great way for us to evaluate what works and what doesn’t, and with the great community feedback and support we have an idea of what you like too.

Even though the tests have been fun to play in their own right, they were little more than half-finished game engines with some temporary data thrown in to try the different systems out. They did not really represent the larger gameplay design we have planned for the final product. Sure, the gun battles and basic elements are there, but the base building phase and more emphasis on strategy and tactics over twitchy action wasn’t.

Now that we have a framework and and idea of what’s fun, it’s time to build the real game. The project is at a point where we’re taking apart and rebuilding a lot of areas, and replacing most of the old temporary test data with fresh new art assets. It’s just not conducive to putting out tests as frequently as some of you have become used to.

Another reason for not putting out new builds while we’re changing things so drastically is that each one would break all the mods that are already out there.

So, while I will try to keep this devlog a little more frequently updated on things we’re working on, don’t expect test builds nearly as often as before. There may only be one or two left before we put out a version that really starts to look like the final product.

If you can’t handle the waiting, then why not submit your email address above, and give it a break. You’ll get an email every time anything new is announced.

Soooo… this whole week has been spent tearing my hair out over the core physics code. Everything else is being held up by these issues that I’m trying to resolve with the lowest level collision code. Being a physics-based game, Cortex Command’s gameplay is entirely dependent on having this robust foundation, or things really go to pot.

A clear example is the ‘tunneling’ problems, where actors could glitch themselves through the terrain, no matter how hard or thick the materials. The AI-controlled skeleton actors loved to do this in previous test builds. But no more! Although there are still other ways to compromise the terrain through glitches, the major ones have been fixed:

Note how there’s no more tunneling, so the AI enemies have to pile bodies to get over those walls

Also, a lot of time and effort was spent experimenting with having invisible physics springs pulling things apart when two objects started to intersect. The initial method I tried failed miserably, resulting in things being very squishy and mushy feeling. I’ll work more on getting the MO-MO collision responses working better, and see if we can’t get a new build out soonish.